Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-09
TEACH CHILDREN
TO BE THRIFTY
Parents Make Mistake in Cul-
tivating Extravaganza In
stead of Economy
BY Dorothy Dix

| are YOU raising your boy to be
Are you teaching your girl to be a
waster?
Are you bringing up your children
TO throw money away. and to think
the only use of a dollar is to blow it
in as quickly as possible?
Are you inculcating in your child
rem no idea of economy, and no habit
of thrift?
If you are you are blighting your
children's lives. You are handicapping
| their future.
You are raising up a man who will
De poor, and hard run. and in debt
! TO the end of his days. He will be one
or those men who with plenty of ability
and energy, never arrive anywhere, and
VINO at last get discouraged and uuali-
! ~ as members of the Down and Out
Club.
You are raising up a daughter who
VIII keep her husbands nose to the
grlhdstone as long Is he lives and who
will bar his way to success by her
mountain of bills
Fond and Foolish Parents Often stint
themselves to Spoil Their Children
| Inc greatest fault in the American
character is extravaganza, and instead
OF trying to eradicate it in their child
rem, the average father and mother cul-
tivate it.
Go into any household that YOU will.
and you will be shocked at the way
the children are taught to waste
money. All day long there is a never
ending appeal from Johnnie and Mary
and Susie for dimes for the movies
nickels for ice cream and soda water
and pennies for this or that
This is the case even among peopIe
who have to toll hard for every dollar
they have, and who live always on the
ragged edge of hard times. They are
bound that their children shall be indul-
sed. Father will do without the warm
coat that he needs and mother will wear
| leaky shoes that Johnnie and Mamie
may have some ridiculously expensive
toy upon which they have set their
hearts.
we want our children to be happy.
| we don't want them to be burdened
when they are lite by having to think
how far dollar may be made to go,
as we do. They'll have to worry about
money soon enough" say these parents
in self excuse for their folly.
n Child Trained to ExtravaEance Is
| ForedOomed to Poverty All His Life
| To which one may reply if YOU be-
gin teaching children thrift in their
| cradles they will not have to stretch
their dollars so far. nor will they need
] to worry about money when they come
! to their parents age. Nothing is more
certain than this that if we take care
! of our money when we are young. our
money Will take care of us when we are
old.
Any boy that grows up with the be-
lief that money was only made to spend
and whose money burns in his nocket
until 1t burns hole through it. is fore
doomed to poverty. No matter how
much he makes it all goes for notl-
ing.
He can never take advantage of the
opportunities that come his way, be-
cause opportunity has to be backed by
a bank account. If he gets sick or
loses his job, he becomes a burden on |
other people, and in his old age he is
dependent on the charity of others. He
mas got nothing to show for his life's |
work just because he has never learned !
to save when he was young
The wickedest woman on earth is no !
more curse to her husband than is |
a good woman who is wasteful and ex- |
travagant. No man can make anv !
headway against a wife with a spend |
ing mania. /
She makes of her husband a slave
who is sod into bondage to milliners |
and dressmakers and grocers and |
a great mans life is sacrificed to a |
woman's having the bargain counter |
habit.
All of these catastrophies could be |
prevented by parents teaching their
children habits of thrift when they are
little. If every child was taught to save
instead of to spend; if it was taught |
that collection of nickels is far more
interesting than a collection of marb-
les or dolls, that one of the most eX-
citing things in the world is to watch
a bank account grow, we should do
away with nine-tenths of our failures
and loafers and half of our divorces
iC
seems Foolish spending is simply a
bad habit. It's merely the qualification
of a passing fancy.
Most of the things that children
waste money on they don't want the II
second after they have them, as is 4
proven by the clutter of toys that every Il
child possesses that he never PLAYS with II
useless toys that often total up into
hundreds of dollars.
If the child were taught to at least
put half of all the money given him
in the bank, and show how this money
grows. and how it represents some
big thing that he wants, while the
money that he has spent has gone
forever. he would soon become as in
terested in saving as he is in wasting
n Savings Bank Account Appeals to
Child as Few Other Things Do
Every child should have savings
bank account started in his own name
lie should be permitted to go person.
ally 10 the bank with his little de-
posits, and he will soon come to feel
that it's far more interesting ex-
perience than visit to the candy shop.
and that the sense of pride in having
a real bank book to show the other
boys is more exhilarating feeling
than exhibiting a new bat or ball.
have seen the bank account ex-
pertinent tried on numerous small bows
and girls, and have never seen a child
yet that didn't respond enthusiastically
TO II, nor one who didn't get so inter-
ested in it that he or she didn't soon
oegih TO let mother and father and
uncles and aunts know that a check
was the most acceptable of all pres
ents on birthdays and holidays.