The Washington herald., 1914-03-12
THRIFTY PEOPLE.
py EMonY. .. MAYNEs.

Study that plainly dressed mans face
At the Battery. in New York, is where
all immigrants land He looks SO
searchingly for the little group his FAM
lily. Stern economy makes even his
happy smile almost severe. Four years
of the utmost frugality have held them
all in an iron grip. But at last he owns
once abandoned" Vermont farm.
Yonder steamer has just brought wife
and children over seas to his brave en-
braces. II you arc, some day, clouded
and want sunshine that would make for
you this old world seem Paradise, go
down and look on one of those greet
ings. Tears of sympathetic gladness
come into your own eyes.
This is what thrift means. This man
is not miser, for he has saved the
money, not for the love of money, but
for worthy end. In this sense thrift
is always honorable. II has often been
sublime. 1t ranks with education. 1t
is an art as truly as music or painting.
The immigrant had plan, and constant
thought was expended on the plan.
Nothing was left to haphazard. He had
self-mastery, which heid him true to
what self-denial was needful. He had
economy, which implies management
He was frugal without being niggard-
ly, for his motive of a future citizen
ship rectifed his conduct with his neigh
bors. He kept his health, not starving
out his vitality, and that idea is well
borne out by the very word, thrift. We
say of young plant that it thrives if it
is in healthy, growing state. Thrift
means getting as well as saving. which
the plant exemplifes in what it takes
from soil, sun, and air, and then secure
ly makes its own.
In this true meaning of thrift, who
but respects il? We rejoice in the thrifty
rosebush or young maple. 1t is right
nature, just as the Creator meant all
healthy life should be up to the limit
OF old age. We do prize thrift in young
men and women. The things we hate
are stinginess, miserly greed, avarice.
But these characteristics are to thrift
what pewter quarter of dollar is TO
the real silver.
Thrift means an all-around healthy
development OF human life. The over:
worked word success is misleading.
for it too often means only money
getting
The thrifty people are the only ones
who sustain the churches. the charities.
and the mercies of this great republic.
They are the farmers whose growing
crops are the handsomest sight in all
nature. They are the mechanics whose
well-ordered lives produce more than
they consume or lay up in store and so
their hearts have something to help
others.
In every profession, in every gang
OF laborers there are few who order
their own lives well, who grow, who
get out of self its utmost profit in body
and mind. They pay their own debts
and the debts OF the whole stumbling
world. They are the salt OF the earth.
the thrifty few. 1t is their savings that
make up the entire capital of all the
commerce OF the civilized globe.
Strange to say, thrift is not taught.
nor can it be to any great extent. II
can be suggested. outlined. inculcated as
a duty. But thrift is strictly personal
matter. A child will adopt it as a rule
OF conduct; or reject it, wholly as a
personal rule OF action. Ii may be an
inheritance to a degree But even that
does not wholly explain Just why one
boy will turn out thrifty and another a |
spendthrift in the same family. No; it I
is not a gift of nature. 1t is a de-
iberate choice. based on sober convic- |
ton that it is the only sensible way to
prosecute life.
Are young Americans thrifty? The
former generations have been people |
Of thrift. But now one of the national |
perils is the prodigality that great pros
perity makes our temptation. Herein
lies a great cause of the high cost of |
living.