The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1910-02-08

lily llc, DuI IL never ROI lH0 DetlSI |
OF mo but once. }" newspaper man
said to me the other day. "And
that once was when | got in with q
crowd Of men who had good deal
moro money than L. They we're
real estate mon. My business threw
me in with them for q few months.
and during that time 1 spent more
money on cards than 1 had q right
to but that was the only time" No
don't be scared. This isn't to be
preachment against the danger Of
gambling simply a few words
against what seems to me the great
danger Of getting in with n crowd"
that has more money than You do.
1t wasn't the gambling that got
that man. 1t was simply the desire
to live up to financial standard
That WAS too, high for him. l do
not believe that any ivc-do]lar man,
unless he has unsual strength of
character, can be thrown constantly
with fiftydoll0r people and not yield
occasionally 70 the temptation TO
spend as they do. In some one Of
his books Charles Dickens says that
il you earn fifty pounds q year and
spend forty-nine pounds and nine
teen shillings you can be happy, but
if you make. fifty pounds year and
spent fifty pounds and one 'hilling,
you are pretty apt to be very un-
happy. True enough, except that
no matter, how carefully, you keep
your expenditures within that fifty
pounds, L doubt. if you will be happy
ifyou associate. too constantly, with
people who earn hundred pounds.
In. the.town. where L was brought
up. there lives a soured woman for
whom few even ofthe most tolerate
folks have a.goodsword. Sic was
the only daughter OF, the owner Of a
small shop who made perhaps
$500. or, $4,000 a year, She was as
pretty girl. Her mother was a
clever woman and ambitious fer her
daughter. Together they managed
to place, themselves in.the set Of The
five and ten and fifteen thousand
dollars year people : When the
daughtersiof these families finished
high school they went to one Of the
mort expensive colleges. The
shopheepers daughter did likewise
OF course. 2 And as far as history re-
lates all went we'll with her until
the middle ,of Der second college
year, when slip of yellow paper
summoned her home one day rather
rudely' Weighed down by the
burden Of his wife's and dang hter's
attempt to live at ten thousand
dollar ratio on two thousand dol
lar income, her father had failed in
and aghast at the thought !
Of lnterruPting his dac ghler's educa |
ton, had committed suicide so that
she might finish it with his life in
eurance This is not n Wild sur |
mise. He stated hiS purpose very .
explicitly and apologetically in a
note. the contents OF which somehow |
or other leaked out. And further /
more, that girl actually took the !
money and camly went about com
pleting her education. But She /
had gone to far. The friends f..
whom she had done this fell away /
from her as such frien Is have wa, .
Of doing. That was fifteen years
a go, but her name is still a house /
hold word ofill reputc. Her shame I
is It'll a village tradition. It isl
splendid TO have SO strong a char
actcr that one IS never in the least
swayed by tho financial standard /
Of those about him. But since the
average person does Lot have eu.i
q character, it seems to me that Dol
viii probably be better off if Lei
plan to travel for Tie.
most part with the people Of Dbl
own financial plane, In all likeI I
rood he will find just as nico and
and refined people in
hat plane as in the next higher and
infinitely more peace Of mind in
beir society. Ruth Cameron, n
2orkersburg Sentinel.