Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-08-24


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ance; but after awhile the men and
the boys close in upon him with sticks
and stones and shouting. and drive him
through bars and into a doorway,
where he is fastened, and with we'll
aimed stroke the axe fells him; and
so the anticipation of the redolent pas
ture field is completely disappointed.
So many young man has been driven
on by temptation to what he thought
would be paradisiacal enjoyment; but
after awhile influences with darker hue
and swarthier arm close in upon him
and he finds that instead of making an
excursion into q garden, he has been
driven ''as an OK to the slaughter"
We are apt to blame young men for
being destroyed when we ought to
blame the influences that destroy them.
Society slaughters a great many young
men by the behest, You must keep
up appearances; whatever be your sal
airy, you must dress as well as others,
you must give wine and brandy to as
many friends, you must smoke as cost
ly cigars, you must give as expensive
entertainments, and you must live in
as fashionable a boarding house. II
you haven't the money, borrow. If
you can't borrow, make false entry,
or subtract here and there bill from
a bundle of bank bills; you will only
have to make the deception a little
while; in few months or in a year
or two You can make it all right. No
body will be hurt by it, nobody will be
the wiser. You yourself will not be
damaged" BY that awful process
hundred thousand men have been
slaughtered for time and slaughtered
for eternity.
Suppose you borrow. There is moth
ing wrong about borrowing money.
There is hardly a man who has not
sometimes borrowed money. Vast es-
tates have been built on a borrowed
dollar. But there are two kinds of bor-
rowed money: Money borrowed for the
purpose of starting or keeping up legi-
innate enterprise and expense, and
money borrowed to get that which you
can do without. The first is right, the
other is wrong. If you have money
enough of your own to buy coat. how
ever plain, and then you borrow
money for dandy's outfit. you have
taken the first revolution of the wheel
down grade Borrow for the necessi-
the Injuries: that tips your prospects
over in the wrong direction.
The Bible distinctly says the borrow
err is servant of the lender. 1t is a bad
state Of things when you have to go
down some other street TO escape meet
ing some one whom you owe. II young
men knew what is the despotism OF be-
ing in debt more of them would keep
out OF it. What did debt do for Lord
Bacon, with mind towering above the
centuries? 1t induced him to take
brides and convict himself as a GRIMM
al before all ages. What did debt do
for Walter Scott? Broken-hearted at
Abbotsford. Kept him writing until
his hand gave out in paralysis to keep
the sheriff away from his pictures and
statuary. Better for him If he had
minded the maxim which he had CHS
eled over the fireplace at Abbotsford,
waste not, want not.
The trouble is, my friends. that peo-
pie do not understand the ethics of GO
ing in debt. and that if You purchase
goods with no expectation of paying
for them. or go into debts which you
cannot meet. you steal just so much
money. If go into grocer's store
and bug sugars and coffees and meats
with no capacity to pay for them, and
no intention of paying for them. I
am more dishonest than il go into the
store, and when the grocer's face is
turned the other way l fill my pockets
with the articles Of merchandise and
carry off ham! In one case take the
merchants time and take the time Of
his messenger to transfer the goods to
take none of the time Of the merchant,
and / wait upon myself. and / trans
fer the goods without any trou-
BILE 10 him, In other words.
sneak thief is not so bad as man who
contracts debts he never expects to pay.
When a young man wilfully and OF
choice, having the comforts of life,
goes into the contraction Of unpayabie
debts, he knows not into what he goes.
The creditors get after the debtor, the
pack of hounds in full cry, and alas.
for the reindeer. They Jingle his door
bell before he gets up in the morning,
they jingle his doorbell after he has
gone to bed at night. They meet him
as he comes off his front steps. They
send him a postal card, or letter, in
curtest style, telling him to pay up.
They attach his goods. They want
cash, or note at thirty days, or note
on demand. They call him a knaye.
They say he lies. They want him dis
ciplined in the church. They want him
turned out of the bank. They come at
him from this side, and from that side,
and from before, and from behind, and
from above. and from beneath, and he
is insulted, and gibbeted. and sued, and
aunned, and sworn at, until he gets the
nervous dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets
liver complaint, gets heart disease, gets
convulsive disorder, gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say, "Of course
they will let him alone" Oh, no. Now
they are watchful to see whether there