The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-19
mans store and home with the mien
and the heavy step of a tyrant and a

mans store and home with the mien
and the heavy step of a tyrant and a
master.
Then see Debt call out to a yelled
| figure who is standing in the doorway.
He says: GONE in. mother. come in.
| You need not be afraid: come in
| Then the female figure throws back the
veil from off her head. and l see that
| she is the old bag Pride, with paint
ed, withered, sneering. scornful face.
! Then Debt takes Mother Pride through
| the aisles of the store and through the
eoomS of the young mans home as he
says: Mother, these goods-they will
soon all be mine. Those pictures upon
the walls, and those carpets upon the
| floor, those dishes in the closets-they
| shall soon all be mine, and I will make
the young man drop his life insurance
policy when he dies. { will literally
strip his widow of everything. Aha,
that young man did not realize what a
keen. shrewd. farseeing, Satanic plan
ner ] could be when told him to in
crease his outgo over his financial in
come am we'll worthy 70 be called
thy child, mother. 9 carry misery and
woe wherever l 60" Such is nearly
always the outcome of every man S
life when Pride and Debt so hand In
hand and are allowed to sit down By
the domestic fireside-
Yhe Tyranny Of Debt.
This tyranny of debt, which IS che
offspring of false pride, makes its con-
quests over those who have large in
comes as we'll as those with small.
Only the other day there was buried
in one of ChicagO's cemeteries a man
who for ten years had salary of over
$4,000 per year. Yet that man was al
ways in debt. While he had an in
come of $500 he was trying to live on
the scale of those who had a $1,000 in
come. When he was appointed a gen.
eral superintendent of large corpora
ton, at $3.50 per month salary, he i'm
mediately moved his family into a
new neighborhood and tried to associ-
ate with Chicago's milIionaires. That
man, when he died. did not own the
home he lived in, He did not even own
the bed on which he died. Every parti-
plastered over with mortgages. Last
fall he even allowed his life Insurance
policy to lapse because he could not af-
ford to pay the few hundred dollars
necessary to keep it up, though he had
salary of $4,000 per year. So we find
today that many a man who lives in
a fine mansion is in the merciless clutch
of debt. The financial curse of this
age is that muItitudes of people, on
account of false PRIDE and pernicious
extravaganza. are eking out a misera-
BILE existence. These people may move
in the best society, so called. yet they
are far poorer than the humble clerk
with a paltry salary of $40 a week
who saves at least one-tenth of his in
come
Debt is not only the offspring of
pride, but is often the parent Of a
large family of criminal children. The
study of genealogical tables is among
the most interesting of studies. Ger
tain families nearly always have good
Ii
from generation to generation. Other
families nearly always have bad chill
dren; there is apparently something in
their blood that is diseased and con-
taminated AS the waters falling down
the cascades near Duluth show the dis
through forests of cedar and tamaraek
miles away, so the blood of some chill
dren is tainted with criminal tenden-
cies, inherited even before they are
born. They are born with a propensity
for lying, for stealing. for inebriety,
which they are seldom able to eradi-
cate. But, though those children may
not be able to overcome their evil tend
encies in their own strength. they can.
overcome them by the help of super
natural power. which is offered to all
who are tempted
wiIIfuI1y Running Into Debt.
Willful debt is that kind of debt into
which many allow themselves to run
through useless and sinful extrava-
gances. While the young man is being
financially ground to pieces by the up
per and neither millstones of this kind
of debt what is often the most natural
thing for him to do? Ask that young
collector who is taking some of his
employers money to win. as he fool
ishly thinks, fortune at the gamblers
wheel. He is not at heart bad young
man. He intends to pay that money
back. He expects to use it only for
little while and then return it with in
terest after he has escaped from the
clutches of merciless debt. Ask that
young embezzler who has just felt the
heavy hand of the law placed upon his
shoulder. Did he ever expect that the
late suppers, the theater tickets and
the attendance at the races would yet
end in a prison cell? No, no. He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter by the
evil WORKINGS of debt, accommodating
debt. Ask that wildcat Spectator in
Wall street. Did he ever think for one