The Wahpeton times., 1917-08-30
Poverty No Virtue

Poverty No Virtue
Poverty is not the parent of
piety nor any kin to it. Poverty is
not a requisite to moral sturdi-
ness nor necessarily any aid to it.
Men who have split rails and trav-
eled the tow-path have risen to the
Presidential shair in America; but
they were children of moral quail
itv that happened to nick with pow
erty and SO produce great charact-
er.
But the average man makes bet
ter average charcter, if he is born
and bred in average financial cir
cumstances. Not in three thous-
and years has a better average
mans prayer for fortune been
prayed than that of Agur, the son
of Jakeh:
''Give me neither poverty nor
riches. Feed me with food con-
venient for me; lest I be full, and
deny Thee, and say, "Who is the
Lord - or lest l be poor and steal
and take the name of my God in
vain"
Almost anyone caii call to mind
instances of well-bred boys, sons of
poor but pious parents, who have
gone wrong as men. And the
forks of the road where most Of
them turned off from the way of
rectitude was at the sign post If
"Sudden Wealth. -
The child who cannot have TOYS
as the children in the next yard
have; who gets no ticket to the
show the other children see and
talk about; the boy who must wear
patches at college, borrow funds
and board himself in order to
graduate-such boy, unless he has
learned wholesome life lesson
most men never learn. becomes coll
vinced that father was poor fin
ancier; that father missed the
big thing in life; that father was
foolishly good. And this boy has
put just enough truth into his
conclusion to make it deadly
dangerous one.
| Such boy at the start Of bust
ness life is as open to the reduce
tions of the blue-sky promoter as a
garden hedge is to weed seed. He
will be fortunate if he is merely
robbed of what little they have
saved. The desire to win at the
next throw, to find his money where
he lost it, to get quick money to
stop the gap from which his mon-
ey quickly went, can hardly fail to
possess the boy. and to bring about
entangling alliances that make
common honesty difficult, and make
small savings look unattractive.
Once young man has reached this
condition, his ruin is more likely
than his rescue.
Many parents of good mind and
morals are unable tn acquire wealth
or to teach their cr,iGl ell the art Of
becoming rich. Hut no ma:l is so
poorly endowed that he may not
drill his child in the alphabet Of
thrift; and with this alphabet the
child may at the age Of discretion
spell out the legend on the guide
posts to those convenient past
ures that safely lie betA:cen the
dangerous eNtrenY.s Of riches and
poverty.
Let the child assimiIate these
few foundation truths: First. that
little systematic savings may bring
more immediae pleasure than pleas
ant sqlandcrings may: second. that
the pursuit of quick wealth is an
extra-hazardous undertaking and
never worth the effort; third. that
sudden wealth seldom brings last
ing satisfaction and, fourth. that
"better is little with the fear of the
Lord than great treasure and
trouble herewith. -
Let the child learn and practice
these principles before he leaves
his parents roof, and he is quail
fled to take his stand with the
rank and file of that portion OF
society known as the comfortable
middle class-a class. lacking whicn
no nation can ever become great,
or being great. long remain so.