The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-01-14
The Debts of 1892,

The pretty sentimentalism futterng over
the country this morning of New Years
calls and cards and greetings is very well in
its way; but after all and under all, every
one Of us knows, the time has come to pay
up. 1t is the season of duns. The fiend of
the yellow envelope is abroad in the land,
and the collector is utarmed with freshly
sharpened goad. Young people and lovers
may find sweet prophecies in the new conner
that rode post-haste across the waste last
night. but to us who are older all he has to
say is, "Can you pay up?"
He among us who has no bills to pay to
day is white elephant in the herd. sacred
in virtue. Salaried men form so large a
proportion of every community, and the
credit system so broadly underles all trade.
that it is well nigh impossible to carry on a
household or business on a Strstly cash
basis. It is much more difficult for re.
spectacle man to escape credit than to get
it IN city. From his doctor to his butcher
everybody has insisted upon trusting him
during 1891. and now they all pounce on
him together. demanding payment.
OF course we believe every reader of The
Times will pay if he can (the preacher al
ways has faith in his congregation). or if he
cannot pay he will resolve during the hu
miliatons and miseries of the next month
never to run another bill. We dismiss him
to his virtue or his remOrse with the brief
reminder that there are debts which he
must pay during the coming year which
money will not cover. 1t is not enough
that he is not an actual deadbeat and scala
Wag; that. as he jOgS along in the crowd he
does not fich from this man his house. or
from another his clothes. coal or cigars with
out paying any equivalent therefor. He
owes each man in the crOwd-first. elbow
room. Because he has acquired certain
amount of money or nOtOriety. or what he
chooses to consider social rank. he has no
right to wrap these bulky impedimenta
about him, like the wadded armOr of Chi
naman. to Obstruct the highway and thrust
unhampered and probably better men into
the gutter. He may have the blood of the
Guelphs or Ghibellnes, and a million in his
pocket. and his poor neighbOr not penny;
but opinions. tastes, the chances of sover-
eighty, share in the world, in short. be-
long just as much to one as the other. You
have no right to swagger along the road.
saying. II am richer or redder blOOded, or
better bred than these Others" And by
Just as much as you do it. whoever you are,
you make yourself public nuisance.
Neither have you any right to thrust your
miseres and defects into view. A certain
amount of wholesome cheerfulness belongs
to the public, just as do the sunshine and
pure air, and a man owes it to his neghbors
to keep his mental and physical diseases out
of sight as he does to keep his drains clean.
The men of ''genius" or the members of
family who perpetually are laying bare their
mental sores are in the same category as the
beggar who uncovers his defOrmity in the
roadside. For the same reason every man
owes courtesy and decent respect to his fel
low travellers. If kind word or CHEEKY
smile will help your wife or friend or serv-
ant to carry her load more easily, it is a
debt due from you to them-not favor.
Every man in short owes his quota toward
making the world pIeasanter and warmer,
and the sour, grumpish fellow who chills
the air with his spite and sarcasm is only a
bad debtor. lodging payment of his dues.
Something also each man owes to HIM
self this New Years morning. Self respect;
when you have that you need not be afraid
of being patrOniZed or trOdden upon; you
will be neither snObbishly servile nor con-
coite0 nor hmm ntiOnS in manner: no matter