Arizona republican., 1891-10-10
OV ERDRAWN ACCOUNTS.
Old Father Time as the Cashier of
 a Great Bank.


 CTS, too vast to count, came, each with his check in hand, to the wicket for his cash. l 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 hard resolute face and get lips bitten as if with pain, threw in his check.
 Your account is overdrawn," said Time. "I told your friend so yesterday who presented check of yours"
 "What? That's why I came myself. Overdrawn! Il 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 fifty-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. Tn 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 a king in old times threw coin to the rabble. When by the calendar you were aged twenty-five by my strict and accurate books you were thirty-fve, and beginning to grow old"
 "Very we'll" began the trembling figure in reply, but I reorganiaed after that Ten years lost, I 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 spendthrift You crowded three weeks into one for long while. In ten years you lived out twenty; did the work of twenty, the worry, the fighting, the litigation, the bidNCAs Niit Eittty olhS ol l"Shll 1tdiS You have gotten your wealth. You have gained the whole world and lost 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 Tn eternity. The account is over drawn sir. Step aside, old man of fifty five, customers are waiting"
 And while 1 looked the servants of the bank came in-Death, Dust and Forgetfulness-and carried him out.
 Then came a haggard wretch whose name indorsed upon the back of a check read, "A. Suicide" He faltered on:
 ''I suppose this check is worthless. There is not another day for me-"
 ''On the contrary, there are yet forty years, that you can draw against; hap py, useful years, spent for mans good and Gods praise"
 ''I doubt it. There must be some mistake"
 Not so. What shall do with these years if you will not take them? No other man can use them; yet thousands would be glad of them, begging So pitt fully. And there are so many thou sands of unclaimed years, filled 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 iii 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 a 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 overdraw your accounts"
 Then saw young man at the win dow. Time asked:
 'How will you have it, sir? In large bills or small?"
 III idi SO, 1T you picdSc Let me i've year in day. A year of pleasure crowded into one wild day! The good things of forty must be had and used up at twenty. I cannot wait"
 And Old Time smiled with sardonic curl of the lip as he observed how the young fool was making the same mis- take that the old fool a few cps be- fore had made. But the check was cashed in the big bills
 saw, too, as I 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 will withstand a good many blunders; he may check against 1t with careful words and thoughtless 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 chil- dren; not pleasant to see an old friend fall; and many people are so related so- cially and commercially with this man of a leading position that his ruin would infiict loss on them. Hence they keep his account good at the bank over which Time presides; they do it by excuses, lending their countenance to blundering spendthriftSand hope for n