The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-08-05
THE THRIFT HABIT.

The trouble with great many peo-
pie is they expect to acquire good
habits in old age, while they spend
most of their youth in cultivating bad
ones. 1t is SO easy to postpone doing
the things that are hard until tomor-
row, and so easy to drift along today
Not only is hell paved with good inten-
tions, but the pathway of the average
man is strewn with the wrecks of
good intentions. The whole scheme
of right living contemplates that man
should not put off until tomorrow the
things he should do today.
One of the habits we hope to acquire
some time is the habit of thrift. The
habit often comes late in life-not al
ways from choice but often from
necessity. Having satisfied habits
that are destructive, when the pas
sions are burned out of a decaying
mind and body, men find themselves
more or less free from temptations,
and mistake a Pickering flame for a
Tipening virtue. Any habit which is
forced is likely to find itself in an
unhealthy environment, and becomes
meaningless in it's practice.
Before you can practice a virtue,
you must desire the results which that
virtue brings, and understand the
process through which it comes.
Many a man has gone to his doom
because he hoped to stop drinking, or
spending, or gambling, some day, but
his hope never got to the point of
action.
Frequently you will find standing
alone, or in groups, on wind-sWept
plain, trees with no branches on what
the sailor would call the "windward
side," and leaning sharply in the di-
Tection in which the wind blows.
This has been no sudden process. For
years the north wind has blown gently
or fiercely against the tree, so that
little by little it became distorted in
shape, until it has become its habit
to grow lOpsided.
No bad habit is acquired in an in
stant-it is a subtle process, little by
little becoming so fixed that the ma
ture becomes distorted, like the tree,
battling in vain against an adverse
wind.
If this habit of thrift is to be a
wholesome, sweet, and fruitful one, ii
must be acquired while the body is
healthy and the mind vigorous. II
must not be dying reformation. Its
best work can be done when the earn
ing power is greatest, the resisting
power strongest, and the future, il
may be, afar off.
No man ever becomes Spendthrift
at a single leap. The wasteful habits
which he allows to grow become sc
fixed that, struggle as he may, anC
wish as hard as he might, he cannot
change his nature. Old age may
compel thriftiness because there is
nothing more to waste, but the sad
dest commentary on human life is tt
find at the close nothing stored up Of
energy, money, or property, for which
the best years of life have been given
Thrift is a composite virtue. 1t in
cludes the desirable attribute o
economy, self-denial, and saving; blu
it is no relative to niggardliness O
meanness. The man who would lie
his grandmother starVe is not
thrifty man, but brute. Any virtu
carried to extremes becomes undesiI
able and no longer a virtue. TIL
thrift that does not make man chal
table sours into avarice. Thrift
means better homes, better citizens
more comforts, more enjoyment, littl
waste, little anxiety-peace. Out of
grows productive energy, steady coul