Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-03-09
KEEP out OF DEBT
If You Are In Debt You Are a Fly
Glued to the Fly Paper.
LITTLE CHANCE TO ESCAPE.

The More You Struggle the Tighter
You Stick-Soon Your Courage 10
Gone and You Are a Dead Fly-8e
Wise and Shun That Fly Paper.
More than half the people are in debt
that is to say, they afe living beyond
their means or they are spending every
cent.
And the man who is spending every
cent he gets is actually in debt and
running in debt, for he Is running In
debt to his old age, when he won't be
able to make and won't be able to
spend and when the spending of today
means debt later.
Those that are in debt know what
debt is. There is no need to tell them
about it.
First you owe $50 if you are a little
manor $4,000 If you are a big man.
And then you owe $100-or 100000
If you are big.
For awhile you struggle and plan.
You are going to pay it off soon. 1t
is a good thing to use 20. P. M."-that
is to say. other peoples money-in the
effort to get ahead.
You tell yourself that all the big
men have used their credit and bor-
rowed and gone ahead rapidly.
1t all sounds very nice and plausible.
But remember that you keep getting
in deeper.
The fly lights on the fly paper. per-
haps with only one leg at first. He
SAYS this Is nothing and puts down the
other leg TO push himself off.
And then be Is stuck fast.
And then he says to himself, 81 will
fly away from this fly paper so he be-
gins tapping his wings. And both of
his wings stick to the paper.
There he is with his feet stuck and
his wings stuck and only his head free.
That fly feels about as Independent
and hearty as you do If you are in debt.
And he says: 81 can get off of this pa
per easily enough when l get ready.
I'll just put my head down and push
myself off,"
He buzzes for awhile. Then he puts
his head down on the fly paper to push
himself off.
Then his head sticks tight. He be-
gins to choke.
By and by he rolls over or his side.
he sinks into the sticky s~urface-and
there is another dead fly.
So it is with men in debt. So it will
be with you if you stay in debt.
The only hope for the fly the moment
he feels one foot on the fly paper is TO
use both wings and fly away, not put
ting In the other foot. flying off as
quickly as he can.
And a billion times wiser and better
Is the occasional rare fly who sees the
other flies sticking to the fly paper and
says, ~ don't like the look of those
flies; I'll stay away from them"
Look at the people in debt. See their
worry. See the anxiety of the mother,
reflected in the children.
See the lack of standing, the %extrava-
gance and the poverty mixed together.
You can't mistake the human fly
stuck on the fly paper of debt.
Since you cannot mistake him why
not keep away from that fly paper?
Debt makes everything worthless.
If you owe $1,000 it seems rather
foolish to save ten or twenty.
You feel that you might as well
spend it; it won't make any difference.
And so it goes if you W $1,000.
And then it isn't worth while to say
twenty or forty.
And you become a failure. You put
down your feet and then your wings
and then your head, which is ambition,
and by and by you roll ove and you
are a dead fly.
Keep out of debt.-From the New
York Evening Journal.
(Copyrlght by the Star Company