The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-10-21
DEBT.


frifling and venial. The weakness of GER
tain eminent persons in this direction,
among whom Bacon, Pitt and Webster are
illustrious examples, detracted little from
their towering fame, but no vice or de-
linquency becomes digni6ed or ennobled
because it is practiced by great man.
Certain it is that the ordinary man who
plunges into debt, with no prospective
ability to discharge the same when due,
cannot long maintain his ease of mind.
Nothing is more retarding or depressing
than load of debt from which one cannot
be relieved by any effort. The old-fash-
Toned proverbs of thrift are still worth
quoting. Atno previous time in the history
of the country was there so much substan-
tial prosperity or such display of the
splendors of wealth as we are now witness
ing. Blinded by the glitter, many weak
lngs there are who seek other roads to
wealth than are chartered by honesty and
prudence.
It is hard for the poor man to regard the
prosperity of others with Indifference and
to confine the qualification of his desires to
the limits of his narrow resources, yet the
whole secret of the rise of many persons
to financial ease and independence is found
in the self-discipline which deferred them
from living beyond their income. Samuel
Smiles observes that persons without the
virtue of self-denial are not only subject
to their own selfish desires, but are usually
in bondage to others who are like minded
with themselves:
"They must live by the artificial stand
ards of their class, spending like their
neighbors regardless of consequences.
They gradually become reckless of debt
until it enthralls them. In all this there is
great moral cowardice, pusillanimity and
want of manly independence of character. :"
He approvingly quotes George Herbert's
proverb, "Debtors are liars" and Shaftes-
bury's observation that the restlessness to
have something which we have not and to
be something which we are not is the root
of all immortality.
Provident economy is often branded as
parsimony. This is the price most men pay
who rise from poverty to comfortable
estate. There is no romance at all in the
prudential philosophy. Young persons
turn from it with aversion. Life opens too
invitingly before them; it seems made for
them. tits difficult to realize that financial
independence is predicated upon unceasing
industry, perhaps severe economies, main
tanned through the years when life and its
enjoyments are the most alluring. It is
evident that the great majority must be
content with small pleasures and moderate
qualifications during efficient years if any
thing is to be laid by for the proverbially
rainy day. The lion in the road is debt.
johnson sagaciously said to Boswell that
he should not consider debt only as an in
convenience. He would find it a calamity:
''Small debts are like small shot, are
rafting on every side, and can scarcely be
escaped without wound; great debts are
like cannon, of looud noise, but little dan
ger.''
Any stress of labor and grinding toll is
more to be endured than the nagging i'm
portunity of petty creditors. Franklin
quantity and shrewdly said that creditors
have better memories than debtors: that
creditors are superstitious lot and great
observers of set days and times. "They
have short Lent who owe money at
Easter" 1t is an axiom of economical
philosophy that the way to make the weeks
fly swiftly is to have an outstanding note
that one cannot pay. No slavery is more
calling to the soul than the bondage of
debt.
"What do you do when you fall into
debt?' asks Franklin. "You give another
power over your liberty. If you cannot
pay at the time you will be ashamed to see
your creditor; you will make poor, pitiful
excuses, and by degrees come to lose your
veracity and sink into base downright
lying"
1t is folly to create debt to obtain things
not necessary for decent and respectable
existence, despicable to incur debt to in
dulge in vice. "What would maintain one
vice would maintain two Children" is not
merely smart saying.
Jefferson felt keenly the pressure of
obligations which through financial mis-
fortune he was unable to meet. He wrote
pathetically to one of his friends: 81 am
miserable till shall owe not shilling