The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-23
WOMEN
 AND THINGS

"Go to the ant thou sluggard; consid- CT her ways. and be wise; which having no guide. overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in summer and gathereth her food in the harvest"
 | This text from the Proverbs of Solo, mon, while uttered as an indictment against slothfulness. can also be turned into sermon on thrift. It's a double barreled apothegm and well worth a place in the Book of Wisdom of the He- hrews.
 Solomon, after admonishing the ne'er- do-well, sends sarcastic query as parting shot: How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet little sleep. little siumber, little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy pow erty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man."
 It would seem from this that the wise man of old was carrying on a campaign against idleness and also teaching les | son in the necessity of making provi sion for the future. We have current expression. You can't beat the Jews" Well. how can you expect to do it when they had such wise old teachers in Israel They are fed up on wisdom from their youth up. The Old Testament is I a homeIy book and a mighty good one to put into the hands of growing chii- dren.
 It's just step from the Bible to Shakespeare, and so we read in one of the plays of the myriad minded
 q have a mind presages me such thrift That I should questionless be fortu
 nate"
 So said Bassanio suitor of Portia and a friend to Antonio, a merchant of Venice.
 Or if you choose we will get another angle on the word thrift when Hamlet says to Horatio:
 'Why should the poor be flattered? Mo- let the candied tongue lick absurd
 pomp,.
 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
 Where thrift may follow fawning." l It would be like the leaving of Ham let out of the play to try to speak or
 write on thrift without making men
 ton of Benjamin Franklin and Poor
 Richards Almanac, for it is as full of
 thrifty suggestion as an egg is of meat. l h ic ,ire i,to f I,a
 book, but according to McMasters, Ben
 jamin was industrious, thrifty, saving, full of hard common sense and worldly
 wisdom. He was as proud of his inven- tion of an economical stove as he was
 in harnessing electricity
 The Americans have been called na-
 ton of spenders, and there isn't any doubt but that they have we'll earned the title for thrift is not an individual or national characteristic of our people. used to hear it said that French family could live we'll off of what an
 American family wasted True or not, one thing is sure, that southerners have
 not as yet got in speaking distance of A i"A southerner is rich as long as he has
 q dollar in his pocket" s@f
 I can well remember the time when pennies did not circulate below the Mason and Dixon line. It was consid- . cred picayunish to haggle over the odd cents. If one went into a store and
 bought an article priced 12 cents he put down dime and thought nothing of it.
 but if he wanted something which cost IS cents he never thought of anything
 save paying Is cents for it. Few things , show better the difference between the , old days and the times in which we now live, Sfor it's the custom to wait for the penny. Even great corporation like i. the Birmingham Railway. Light ane l Power Company collects it, and Uncle
 Sam himself gets it from soft drinks as
 his part.
 But the best story to differentiate the difference between the north and soutf in the matter of saving is one about l Roswell P. Flower. It was given pub licity by man who happened to be ir . his office during his term in Congress One of his influential constituents hae written him to look up a matter for him Flower did so and in replying in full after quite an investigation, he added a postscript: T see you failed to sent
 a stamp for reply" It nearly took tht
 southern congressman's breath away and he blurted out, Why, Flower, vol I are not going to mail that letter. art your" Why not?" he answered. Be cause" answered the surprised south erner. you will make an enemy of him f 1 I wouldn't dare do such thing" There , is where you are wrong,' said tht s northerner, for he will think that if ,, lam looking after my own interests SC closely | will do the same about the in terest of the public"
 Sure. I am in sympathy with the prop- aganda which the government is put. ting on this week about the urgent need of thrift. It's lesson Washington needs
 as much as in any other section of the country, and I was glad to see that e the Associated Press of Wednesday car : ried the information that at last Con- 1 gress had gotten over it's spree o1 spending and that it was beginning tc : see the need of retrenching. It is high time, for the people are burdened with
 every form of taxation. and unless
 something is done to stop the orgy o1 lei, inc .tf