Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-08-16
Talks on Thrift
The Thrift Habit


The trouble with q great many
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 to-mor-
row, and so easy to drift along to-
day. Not only is He'll paved with
good intentions, 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 to-
morrow the things he should do to-
day.
One Of the habits we hope to ac-
quire some time is the habit of thrift
This habit often comes late in life
not always from choice but often
from necessity. Having satisfied hab-
its that are destructive, when the
passions are burned out of decaying
mind and body, men find Themselves
more or less free from temptations,
and mistake a Pickering flame for a
ripening virtue. Any habit which is
forced is likely to find itself in an un-
healthy environment, and becomes
meaningless in its practice.
Before you can practice 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 be-
cause he hoped to stop drinking, or
spending, or gambling, some day, bur
his hope never got to the point of ac-
ton.
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 dir
ection 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 lit
tie 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 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
wholesome, sweet, and fruitful one, it
must be acquired while the body is
healthy, and the mind vigorous. 1t
must not be a dying reformation. It's
best work can be done when the earn
ing power is greatest, the resisting
power strongest, and the future, it
may be, afar off.
No man ever becomes a spendthrift
at a single leap. The wasteful habits
which he allows to grow become so
fixed that, struggle as he may, and
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 to
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 attributes of
economy, self-denial and saving; but
it is no relative to niggardness or
meanness. The man who would let
his grandmother starve is not a
thrifty man but a brute. Any vir-
tue carried to extremes becomes un-
desirable and no longer a virtue. The
thrift that does not make a man
charitable sours into avarice. Thrift
means better homes, better citizens.
more comforts, more enjoyment, lit
tie waste, little anxiety,-peace. Out
of it grows productive energy, steady
courage, opportunity, independence,
self respect, aimfulness in life, man
hood. 1t is the one material habit
that has no shady side. 1t is acquir-
ed little by little-a steady pressure
Tin the right direction) until it be-
comes second nature to save and
thrift becomes a habit.