The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-10-06
A Thrift Fable.


There Is a negro story of turkey
which, every time 1t showed drove his
feathers about him and firmly re-
solved to build him a house. But be-
fore he could decide whore 10 build,
or what kind OF a house, the sun came
out and he would shake out his feath-
ers, strut around and say to himself:
Nobody wants to be in house on a
day like this" and the result was he
froze to death one winter night.
There are a lot of people in the
same frame OF mind as the turkey.
When things are going wrong. work
is slack, times are hard, sickness or
accident comes and their money Is
gone, they firmly resolve that in the
future they Will take care of their
money and look out for the rainy day;
build them house. as 1t were; but
as soon as things right themselves,
they forget their good resolution and
the next time of need finds them as
Ill prepared as ever.
Most OF us are merely grown up
children. We want what we want
when we want It, We live day by
ty to us. The boy win gorge himself
with green apples in June and for
get that there Is a physical law
against eating green apples. Tomor-
row he will find it out, and may re-
solve not 10 eat green apples again;
but good resolution never gets a
man anywhere unless he keeps 1t.
Many New Years promise Is made
only to be broken and pledges are
signed only to be forgotten. How
many man has resolved to stop
drinking when drinking has brought
him in court! He should have stop
ped before.
Thousands of men have firmly re-
solved that they would start saw
ings bank account, made a deposit or
two. and then quit. An exam
nation of the books OF any savings
bank will show large number of
accounts with but one deposit 1t Is
mute evidence of Il good resolution
broken. A certain father with two
children had them insured in an in
dustrlal insurance company. He con-
cludod that he could save the money
he was paying for insurance some
other way and decided to put it in Il
savings bank, and proceeded TO open
an account for each child. The first
was the last deposit ever made. The
insurance collector quit his visits and
the fathers good resolution to save
for his children stopped with his COM
ing, and today they are without either
q bank account or insurance.
The rainy day comes TO every man.
No matter how long 1t may be de-
layed or how distant It may seem, or
how bright the sky today. trouble is
bound to come to us all some time.
A certain young man, full of energy,
and ambition. with as bright pros
poets as n man ever had and highly
successful, made the boast that he
never expected his income to be less
than it was at that time; but inside
OF three years it was nothing. He
thought he had a life job, and it had
every indication Of being such, but
the props went from under, and at
forty he had to begin building all over
again. He does not boast now.
The turkey in the story was no
more foolish than lot of human be
ings. The difference lies in the fact
that the turkey takes what is given
him, or what he can find. We have
the power to choose. We are in
large measure masters Of our own
fate. The beaver and the ant have
the right idea; they build their
houses, fair weather or foul, knowing
that having a house you can 90 into
II when II rains or stay out of doors