The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-09-11
OV ERDRAWN ACCOUNTS.
Old Father Time as the Cashier of
a Great Bank.

Old Time sat as cashier behind the
window of bank where all men must
do business. A long line of custom
ers, too vast to count, came, each with
his check in hand, to the wicket for his
cash. i stood and watched the scene
for hours, till it came my own turn to
place my check under Father Times
gray and ancient scrutiny.
A well-dressed man. with confident
air, with a hard. resolute face and yet
lips bitten as if with pain, threw in
his check.
Your account is overdrawn," said
Time. Il told your friend so yesterday
who presented 4 check of yours
What? That's why | came myself.
Overdrawn, q should have twenty
years here yet to draw on.' exclaimed
the excited gentleman, growing pale
with every word.
How old do you reckon yourself?''
asked Cashier Time.
why, only ffty-five. And three
score-years-and-ten is the deposit to be-
gin with"
See said Time, thrusting great
book under the poor mans eyes. I'm
1854 you, being then nineteen years OF
age, drew three years in one. The
next year, and the next, and the next
you drew three years in one You
squandered them in dissipation. You
drank them up. AS Cleopatra, the
Egyptian queen, dissolved pearls in a
glass of wine and drank the costliest
banquet cup that opulent vanity had
ever seen, SO you drank up the years
between nineteen and twenty-three.
You threw away days and nights as
king in old times threw coin to the
rabblc. When by the calendar you
were aged twenty-five by my strict and
accurate books you were thirty five, and
beginning to grow old"
Very we'll" began the trembling
figure in reply, "Dut / reorgani7ed ed
after that Ten years lost, then re-
formed
True. But in 1874 you drew days
and months very fast again. For the
sake of being rich you squandered
strength like n spendthrift. You
crowded three weeks into one for a long
while In ten years you lived out
twenty; did the work of twenty, tho
worry. the fighting. the litigation, the
travel, the greedy sins of twenty years
You have gotten your wealth. You
Your life Whether you have lost your
soul or not is not for me to say. God
knows that. This bank does no busi-
ness IN eternity. The account is over
drawn sir. Step aside, old man of fifty
five. customers are waiting.
And while j looked the servants of
the bank came in-Dcath. Dust and
Forgetfulness-andc carried him out.
Then came a haEgard wretch whose
name indorsed upon the back of n check
read, "A. Suicide. lie faltered on:
Il suppose this check is worthless.
There is not another day for me-"
ION the contrary, there are yet forty
years. that you can draw against; hap
py, useful years, spent for mans good
and Gods praise"
Il doubt it There must be some
mistake"
Not So What shall do with these
years if you viii not take them? No
other man can use them; yet thousands
would be glad of them, begging 50 pitt
fully. And there are so many thou
sands of unclaimed years, filed up
within my vaults, They shall be added
to eternity again when i, Old Time, go
out of business Yet eternity is no
richer for them. Take your years and
be happy in them as God intended
But the foolish heart declined; and
saw the three servants come in and
carry him out as they had Old Avarice
before.
Then I saw tremendous checks paid
out to Malice, Revenge, Jealousy,
Evil Imaginations, Bad Thoughts, Dis
content. Old Time could not help speak
ing his warning, and though it was
none of his business, he said:
Gentlemen, nothing draws such
heavy drafts on mans deposits of
years of health and strength as un-
wholesome thoughts They are more
expensive than -unwholesome deeds if
possible Look out that you do not
overlraw your accounts"
Then | saw a young man at the win
dow. Time asked:
How will you have il, sir? In large
bills or small?"
''In-large, if you please. Let me live
a year in n day \ year of pleasure
crowded into one wild day, The good
things of forty must be had and used
up at twenty. l cannot wait"
And Old Time smiled with n sardonic
curl of the lip he observed how the
young fool was making the same mis-
take that the old fool few steps be-
fore had made. But the check was
cashed in the big bills
l saw, too, as | stood there, how men
overdrew their accounts of Good Rep
utation. a man may, it seems, build
up a reputation by long and faithful
years which viii Withstand a good
many blunders; he may check against
/. II. FL -
deeds for some time before that stored
good reputation is wasted. On the
whole, the b etter part of the community
would rather believe good of one, of
their foremost fellow-citizens than
evil; it is not pleasant TO hear a scan
dal aired before the faces of their chill
dren; not pleasant to see an old friend
fall; and many people are so related so
cially and commercially with this man
OF leading position that his ruin would