Newport weekly independent., 1901-07-19

UT course sometimes men are flung or mlstortunes and they cannot pay. | hhoW men who are just as honest m having failed as other men are honest in succeeding. I suppose there IS hardly man who has gone through HIe put there have been some times when he has been so hurt by misfor- tune he could not meet his obligations, put all that l put aside. There are multitude of people who buy that winch 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 obllvious 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 tune of his messenger who brought you the goods. Now, if you must steal, steal in way to do as little damage to the trader as possible.
 John Randolph arose in the Ameri- can senate when a question of na- 'tlonal finance was being discussed, and, stretching himself to his full height, in shrill voice he cried out: Mir 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- 1alcatlon will continue to repeat them selves. You have no right to ride in a carriage for which you are hopeless ly Tn debt to the wheelwright who fur nlshed 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, l am so glad when it is not the absolute necessities of life which send people out into dishonesties and fling them into misfortunes. It 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 defalcatio which is not connected in some way with extravaganza.
 Extravaganza accounts for the dis turbance of national finances. Aggre- gations 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 perturba tion." l 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 un- 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 $3,O0O. .OOO for theatrical amusements. While once in awhile Henry Irving or an Edwin Booth or a Joseph Jefferson thrills a great audience with tragedy. r majority of the theaters are as de based as debased they can be, as un- clean as unclean they can be and as damnable as 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 $2,0O0, 100000 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 a possibility? These extrava | gances also account, as I have al ready hinted, for the positive crimes the forgeries, the abscondings of the | officers of the banks. The store or the business street swamped by the residence on the fashionable avenue The fathers, the husbands craft cap sized by carrying too much domes tic sail. That is>what springs the leal in the merchants money till. Tha1 is what cracks the pistol of the sui cides. That is what tears down the banks. That is what stops insurance companes. That is what halts thi. nation again and again in it's tri umphal march of prosperity. In the presence of the American people SC