The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-02-25
TOO MANY WANTS.
MAN wants but little here below
Nor wants that little long"

II
the situation nowadays. Man wants
all that he can get in this age, and
sometimes something over. Yet peo-
pie had wants in the olden time. They
wanted good homes, and plenty to
eat, and productive farms, just as
they always have done, and as they
always should do. But their homes
were not filed, as now, with gimcracks
that seem to serve no purpose but to
take money to buy, and I'd keep the
housekeeper busy taking care of them.
Dinner-tables of old groaned with
the toothsome products of farm and
garden, but there were not so many
implements required with which to
NOW things away. Think of the
dishes we have to wash as compared
with our great grandmother $ pewter,
and weepl Think Of the china and
silver and glass and fine tablecloths
and napkins, and table decorations of
all sorts, that the weaker and wiser"
woman of to-day has to wrestle with,
and shed more tears, if you have them
to shed. Tables packed SO full of
fnery that there is nothing on them
to eat but salt and pepper galore.
"Fancy the feelings said the Head
of the Sidneys, ''of a hungry farmer,
hungry enough to devour an OK, sit
ting up to a table of empty dishes, and
waiting for a servant to bring small
slice of this, or a spoonful of that,
with no prospect of ever getting full.
AS for me-" said he, II want the
| victuals before me, so that can see
if there is enough of it to let myself
out and eat all I want"
It was not custom of the ancients
to spend money until they had it. If
a good dress or suit of clothes was
wanted, and there was no money on
hand to pay with, they went without.
If young men wanted to make schol-
ars of themselves, they studied by can
| die light, in the midst of the family,
and thought about their studies their
heads were not so full of buggies and
girls and football as at present. If
they wished higher education"
they would devise ways and means to
get it by their own industry.
Most of the boys married and set
tied on farms close to home. The new
way of mortgaging the farm to send
the boy to college had not been thought
of. Nobody complained in those days
of boys leaving the farms. Their
parents did not drive them away in
their ambition to make great men OF
them.
The truth is, the money making
capacity of the people nowadays is not
keeping pace with their wants, and
there IS where the trouble begins.
There are sweet-tempered souls who
would say, Don't talk of such
gloomy subjects hunt for cheerful
things and look at life through rose
coiored' glasses, thus all things will
be tinted by that beautiful color. !"
| But like best the clear light that
God gives lis to see all things with.
The light which enables us to distin-
guish right from wrong, and see with
uncolored vision the pitfalls we must
shun if we would reach our journey S
end in safety.
The first thing to be learned before
we can help matters, is, what is wrong
and what wants doing. We cannot
see by shutting our eyesr One doesn't :
have to look far to see that many peo-
pie are spending money and time they
can i'll afford to lose, for things they
buy but do not really need. | should
be glad if / could awaken women to a
fuller understanding of how many of
their wants and wishes fasten bur-
dens on heir fathers, husbands, OF
lovers, and urge them to think more
about such things, and use their IN
fluence to check the needless expendi-
lures which often bring distress, and
even bankruptcy, into families.
Many man is so indulgent that he
would mortgage his farm to buy a
silk dress for his wife or daughter, If
she wanted one, and there was nc
other way. Many man furnishes
the wherewithal for expensive enter
tainments at home, while his mort
gage goes on from year to year undi-
minished, and his notes in bank have
to be renewed time and again.
Women are too apt to ape the man.
ners and customs of society leaders ol
wealth, some of whom are not worthy
of imitation, and the effects of it on
the family are often pitiable.
| 1 know it is obnoxious to some to
have these thing spoken of. If otter
pinches toes and hurts, and they
would rather, as the old rollicking
song put it,
"Let the world jog along as it will,
I'll be gay and happy still"
The wretched emperor who 6ddled
while Rome was burning. won nc
glory for himself by SO doing. A
true patriot sees the follies of his day
and mourns over those errors that he
sees with prophetic eye will prove dis
astrous. He wants to remove the
causes that create unrest among the
people and scatter misery abroad. II
is easy to tell people they must be
cheerful and take smiling face to the
glass SO they'll meet one there. 1ti:
much easier to create conditions thai
promote happiness. Would you tel
the widowed mother who, after long
life of hard work, finds herself lefl
without a dollar between her and
starvation, who henceforth must be &
dependent-would you tell her tc
cheer up, and rise above her trouble
Would you tell the aged father who
poured out the hard earnings of hi:
early manhood to supply the children
and make attractive, pleasant home:
for them, only to be spurnedin his ole
age for the poverty they largely
caused-would you tell such as him tc
smile on and not be cast down by hi.
trials Would you tell the young wis'