The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-08-12
HOW MUCH Is EEoUGHs

No one who reads these lines ieels
that he has enough money. As a
matter of fact, many have more than
enough. We do not write for the
purpose of discouraging thrift. 1t is
we'll to save. 1t is wise to accumu-
late. Thousands are neglecting to
do this. For them this article has
no moral. It is not written for their
benefit.
1t is written for those who are get
ting little ahead; those with whom
the income exceeds the out-go. They
know that they are laying by some
thing. 1t is pleasant to be in that
condition. But the danger is that
the work of accumulating, practiced
for some years, becomes habit which
refuses to limit itself. Then men,
instead of saving to live, live to save.
Then money, instead of being the
means for acquiring the other posi-
bilities of life, crowds out all these
possibilities. We may say that the
miser is an exaggerated freak in the
human family. But there are lesser
phases of the miser's mania that are
no less manifestations of the same
disease. The mania for piling up
wealth beyond ones own fairly-esti-
mated needs is widespread. And it
is not only bad for society, but bad
for those afflicted by it. 1t robs them
of much of the pleasure of life, to say
nothing of happiness or eternity.
How much is enough? Where
shall we place rational limit? In a
natural honest condition of society
one should accumulate nothing. It
is species of hoggishness to lay by
more food and clothing than one can
use. But we do not live in this ma
tural and honest state of society.
In the world such as we find it,
one has enough when he has found
for himself home which satisfies his
wants. Why should he want more
houses than one, or more sites for
houses than one? Then, with COM
Portable home, if ones income ex-
ceeds, during the years of his youth
and prime. his out-go, he has enough.
If his wants are few and his habits
frugal, he will never be poor. The
accumulation of the unexpended por
ton of his daily or monthly earnings
will take care of itself, and the man
may devote himself to the other and
higher and nobler affairs of life.
But sickness - misfortune - acci-
dent? These are all provided against
by the institutions of the society in
which we live. There are mutual
aid societies which checkmate the
chances of sickness life insurance
companies which guard against death;
fire insurance and casualty companies
which save the homestead; and other
forms of securities that protect the
savings of honest labor. But provi-
sion for the future of his children? !?
This is the sympathetic apology that
the money. mania too often makes for
itself. Let children be endowed with
good health, trained in good habits,
gifted with virtue and lowered with
industry, and they are given some
thing that no bag of gold can greatly
add to or enrich. These solder en-
dowments are frequently neglected
by money-saving parents. They leave
their thousands of addle-pated dudes,
brianless fops, simpering simpletons,
and the whole catalogue of mental,
moral and physical nonentities. What
is saved in the frugality of parents is
squandered in the folly of their pro-
geny.-We Mew Century.