Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-09-11
Thus Saith the Oracle.

Young man, what do you owe!
Don't be alarmed-it isn't our lnten-
tons to ask for an exhibit of your
personal affairs or call to your at
tention some bills that you have
long forgotten and more that you
wish were. Our question is not
what do you owe for cigars, clothes
and carriages, but what do you owe
your parents? Ninety-n out OF a
hundred readers will unhesitatingly
answer: mot penny; never bor-
rowed any money from them; never
lost any; never incurred any deDts
they had to stand, ETC."
Well, let us see. There was a
period in your career when you did
not know any better than to have
collie at inopportune times, or to cut
more teeth that would fit your mouth
or to engage the services Of the en-
tire neigeborhood in a hunt for an
imaginary safety pin. You weren't
contributing very heavily to your
support in those days, although
there we're doctor bills to meet every
time you swallowed q button or
licked an overdose Of paint off a
Noah's Ark animal.
Then you passed from skirts to
short pants, which you could put
out of use at the rate of pair each
week without forcing matters; and
as for stockings-just ask your
mother how she darned them, and
your father how he d, well, ask
him. So far you hadn't helped
swell the family treasury, had yous
Afterward came your first suit
with long trousers, with it's attend
ant array of prismatic neckties and
high collars; and incidentally your
first sweetheart, on whom you
squandered your hard-earned dol
lare with reckless purchases of pink
velvet valentines and glittering for
get-me-not jewelry. Now, honor
/ bright, your financial assistance to
your family hadn't been overwhelm-
! ing thus far, had it?
Then some of you went to college
posed as high rollers, be-
haved real devilish- doncherknow?
Learned to wear trousers SO long as
to require turning up at the bottom,
and cultivate growth Of hair that
won for you at graduation the de-
gree of B. A.-Barber's AID. Or
perhaps more of you decided to learn
trade and were apprenticed to a
shop where for two or three years
you worked for wages which after
deducting car fares and cigarettes
didn't leave enough to pay for the
arnica and plaster used on your
bruised thumbs and torn fingers.
Now, young man, here you are
somewhere between the ages Is and
%, and probably you haven't con-
tributed a copper to your mainte-
nance. Adding your expenses of
food, clothing, school ills, doctors
fees, pocket money, ETC., to say
nothing of the strain upon your pa
rents mental and spiritual fiber, you
have cost at least an average of e. SO
annually since your birth or about
81, 500. So you are not as well off
as you thought, for that is quite a
respectable bill which you didn't
know existed.
| What do you intend to do about
it? You answer: ''Well, if l live
I'll pay my board or take care of
father and mother when they are
DID," All, that brings us to the
point-IF YOU LIVE. Your inten-
tions may be above reproach but
they won't square your debts.
There is only one way to provide
get your life insured for the
amount of your obligations in favor
of your parents, who have made
such self denial and sacrifice for
your sake. There are many things
that they have given you that are
too priceless ever to be repaid, but
you can at least arrange to protect
them from want in their old age,
even if you are not alive. You can
never get insured as cheaply as now
why not begin your life right and
do the honorable, manly thing for
your parents?