The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-15
a man buys anything he does not mean
to paw for he is a thief

to pay for he is thief.
Of course sometimes men are flung
of misfortunes and they cannot pay.
l know men who are just as honest
i'm having failed as other men are
honest in succeeding. suppose there
is hardly man who has gone through
life but there have been some times
when he has been so hurt by misfor-
tune he could not meet his obligations,
but all that / put aside. There are
multitude of people who buy that
which they never intend to pay for,
for which there is no reasonable ex-
pectation that they will ever be able
to pay. Now, if you have become
oblivious of honesty and mean to de-
fraud, why not save the merchant as
much as you can? Why not go some
day to his store and when nobody is
looking just shoulder the ham or the
spare rib and in modest silence steal
away? That would be less criminal,
because in the other way you take not
only the mans goods, but you take
the time of the merchant and the time
of his accountant, and you take the
time of his messenger who brought
you the goods. Now, if you must steal,
steal in a way to do as little damage
to the trader as possible.
John Randolph arose in the Ameri
can senate when question of ma
'tional finance was being discussed,
and, stretching himself to his full
height, in a shrill voice he cried out:
Mr.. Chairman, I have discovered the
philosophers stone, which turns ev-
erything into gold-pay as you go!"
Society has got to be reconstructed
on this subject or the seasons of de-
falcation will continue to repeat them
selves. You have no right to ride in
a carriage for which you are hopeless
ly in debt to the wheelwright who fur
nished the landau, and to the horse
dealer who provided the blooded span,
and to the harness maker who capari-
soned the gay steeds, and to the liv-
eryman who has provided the stabling,
and to the driver who with rosetted
hat. sits on the coach box.
Oh, | am so glad when it is not the
absolute necessities of life which send
people out into dishonesties and fling
them into misfortunes. 1t is almost
always the superfuities. God has
promised US a house, but not a pal
ace; raiment, but not chinchilla; food,
but not canvasback duck. I am yet
to see one of these great defalca tions
which is not connected in some way
with extravaganza.
Extravaganza accounts for the dis
turbance of national finances. Aggre-
cations are made up of units, and
when one-half of the people of this
country owe the other half how can
we expect financial prosperity? Again
and again at the national election we
have had a spasm of virtue, and we
said: "Out with one administration
and in with another and let us have
new deal of things and then we
will get all over our perturbation.
do not care who is president or who is
secretary of the treasury or how
much breadstuffs go out of the coun-
try or how much gold is imported I'M
til we learn to pay our debts and it
becomes general theory in this coun-
try that men must buy no more than
they can pay for. Until that time
comes there will be no permanent
prosperity. Look at the pernicious
extravaganza. Take the one fact that
New York every year pays $4,000 900
for theatrical amusements. While
once in awhile a Henry Irving or an
Edwin Booth or a Joseph Jefferson
thrills great audience with tragedy,
you know as well as I do that the vast
majority of the theaters are as de-
based as debased they can be, as un-
clean as unclean they can be and as
damnable Is damnable they can be.
Three million dollars, the vast ma
Jority of those dollars going in the
wrong direction.
Over hundred millions paid in this
country for cigars and tobacco year.
About $2,000,000,00O paid for strong
drink in one year in this country.
With such extravaganza, pernicious
extravaganza, can there be any per-
manent prosperity? Business men,
cool-headed business men, is such a
thing possibility? These extrava-
gances also account, as I have al
ready limited, for the positive crimes,
the forgeries, the abscondings of the
officers of the banks. The store on
the business street swamped by the
residence on the fashionable avenue.
The fathers, the husbands craft cap
sized by carrying too much domestic
sail. That is what springs the leak
in the merchants money till. That
is what cracks the pistol of the sui
cides. That is what tears down the
banks. That is what stops insurance
companies. That is what halts this
nation again and again in its tri-
umphal march of prosperity. In the
presence of the American people so
far as I can get their attention I
want to arralgn this monster curse
of extravaganza, and I want you to
pelt it with your scorn and hurl at l.
your anathema.
How many fortunes every year
wrecked on the wardrobe. Things
have got to such a pass that when we
cry over orr sins in ch,,rcb yUa x.y;pa