Amador ledger., 1900-01-12
VERY HIGHEST ANTIQUITY
Creditor and Debtor, SPEND
thrift and Miser.
'eOURtRs" IRoHIcAl EULOGr ON DEBT
Says Spend and Regale: Save Dol
lar and You Lay 1t up for
a Thief.

the debt OF nature, and the first in
stinct is to put off the payment of it to
the last moment. Many persons. it
will be observed, following the ma
tural procedure, would die be-
fore they would pay their debts.
Society is composed of two classes.
debtors and creditors. The creditor
class has been enormously supposed
the more enviable. Never was there
greater misconceptions; and the hold
it yet maintains upon opinion is re-
markable example of the Obstinacy of
error, notwithstanding the plainest
lessons of experience. The debtor has
the sympathies of mankind. He
is seldom spoken of but with expressions
of tenderness and ompassion-''t ''the
poor debtor!' and 'the unfortunate
debtor" On the other hand, harsh
and hard-harted are the epithets al
lOtted to the creditor spoken of? No,
the creditor never becomes the object
of pity, unless he passes into the debtor
class. A creditor may be ruined by
the poor debtor, but it is not until he
becomes unable to pay his own debts,
that he begins to be compassionated.
A debtor is a man of mark Many
eyes are fixed upon him; many have
interest in his well-being; his move
ments are of concern; he cannot dis
appear unheeded; his name is in many
mouths: his name is upon many
books; he is man of note-of promis-
sorry note; he fills the speculation of
many minds; men conjecture about
him, wonder and conjecture whether
he will pay. He is man of conse-
quence, for many are running after
him. His door is thronged with duns.
He is inquired after every hour of the
day. Judges hear of him and know
him. Every meal he swallows, every
coat he puts upon his back, every dol
lar he borrows, appears before the
country in some formal document.
Compare his notOriety with the OBJ
scure lot of the creditor, of the man
who has nothing but claims on the
world; a landlord, or fundholder, or
some such disagreeable hard character.
The man who pays his way is un-
known in his neighborhood. You ask
the milkman at his door, and he can
not tell you his name. You ask the
butcher where Mr.. Payall lives, and he
will tell you there is no such person in
the nelghborhoOd. People that have his
money fast in their pockets have no
thought of his person or appellation.
His house is only known: No. II is
good pay, No. Ills ready money. It
is an anonymous house; its owner pays
his way to obscurity. No one knows
anything about him or heeds his move
ments. If carriage be seen at his
door, the neighborhood is not full of
concern lest he be going to run away.
If a package be moved from his home,
score OF boys are not employed to
watch whether it be carried to the
pawnbroker. Mr.. Payall fills no place
in the public mind; no one has any
hopes or fears about him.
The creditor always figures in the
fancy as sour, single man. with griz-
zled hair, a scowling countenance and
a peremptory air, who always lives in
dark apartment, with musty deeds
about him and an iron safe, as impen-
etrable as his heart, grabbing together
what he does not enjoy. The debtor,
on the other hand, is always pictured
with wife and six fair-haired daugh-
teri, bound together in affection and
misery, full of sensibility, and suffering
without a fault. The creditor, it is
| never doubted, thrives without merit.
He has no wife and children to pity.
No one ever thinks it desirable that he
should have the means of living. He
is brute for insisting that he must
receive, in order to pay. 1t is not in
the imagination of man to conceive
that his creditor has demands upon
him which must be satisfied, and that
he must do to others as others must do
to him. A creditor is personification
of exaction. He is supposed to be al
ways taking in, and never giving out.
People idly fancy that the possession
Of riches is desirable. What blindness!
Spend and regale. Save dollar and
you lay it up for thief The prudent
men are the men who live beyond their
means. Happen what may, they are
safe. They have taken time by the
forelock. They have anticipated for
tune. The wealthy fool with gold in
store, has only denied himself so much
enjoyment, which another will sieze at
his expense. Look at those people in
a panic. See who are the fools then.
You may say as one of them goes by
in an agony OF apprehension, ''There is
a stupid fellow who fancied himself rich
because he had fifty Thousand dollars
in the bank" The history of the last
thirty years has taught the moral,
'spend and regale." Whatever is laid
up beyond the present hour is put in
jeopardy. There is no certainty but
in instant enjoyment. Look at the
school boys sharing plum cake. The
knowing ones eat, as for race; but a
stupid fellow saves his portion; just
nihhlaS a. hit and kpeDs the rast for