The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-05-22
A Hard Mans Hard Life.

The New York Sun reads a severe
lecture to workiDgman in Meriden,
Conn.,, who, on 81 day, supported
family of six and managed to save out
of his wages in forty years the sum of
$4,000.
Our contemporary tells this econom.
ical toiler that he must have lived
very closely; he must have been mean
and hard toward his wife, his three
girls and little boy; he must have cut
down dress and food to the lowest pos
sible notch. Such a man must have
denied himself a newspaper, Sunday
suits for his wife and himself, and an
occasional toy and stick of candy for
his children. He must have been a
skinfint, and from morning until night
the word in that household must have
been, "scrimp, scrimp, crimp." This
man. S example is not to be recon-
mended. He and his family have got
nothing out of life, and the children
who were trained up in it will doubt
less 20 out into the world to pursue
the stingy and miserly course of their
father. The Sunis exactly right when
it says:
1t is good for a man to live pretty
we'll, if he can afford it, and to get the
best out of his money as he goes along,
always, of course, avoiding anything
like wastefulness, always practicing
economy. 1t is good for him to put
some money in the bank if he can, but
not much more than he can spare. 1t
is right for one to feather his nest but
wrong to stuff it so full Of feathers
that its occupant cannot breathe free
ly. Certainly, oh, certainly, you
should lay up something against a
rainy day; but still you need not
squeeze all the juice out Of life, like
the stingy two-dollar. .a-day man of
Meriden."
In a little city of $4,000 inhabitants
like Meriden a workingman with a
family who tries to live comfortably
and decently will find that it will take
nearly all of his small income of So q
day for necessary expenses. He will
have to make money sacrifices if he
lays aside even $50 or 500 year, and
if he actually saves $4,000 in forty
years out of his wages, without max
ing many in some other way, it goes
without saying that he must lead a
very hard and niggardly life.
1t is true that too many of our wage
workers are wasteful and extravagant,
but those who practice extreme and
unreasonable economy and self-denial
are Just as bad. From such house
holds come the men and women who
scoff at religion and who regard man
kind as their prey. They have been
educated to believe that money is the
sole aim and object Of existence; that
it must not be spent, but must be
saved and boarded, and the conse-
quence is that they go through life
never displaying any public spirit Of
charity and never beautifying their
homes, and never contributing any
thing to the intellectual, spiritual and
highest material progress Of the world
around them.
Sensible economy is a great bless
ing, but we do not want the niggardly
policy that will make people selfish,
greedy and brutal. The man who
spends his last dollar like prince is
really Of more benefit to the commun-
ity than the man who lives like dog
in a hovel and locks up his money,
and shirks those public burdens and
reasonable personal expenses which
every good citizen should be willing to