Year: 1869




BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.


When men are prosperous, and are
making money, and consider them
selves rich, 1 wonder that it so seldom
comes home to them that they are Ii
able to reverses, which shall plunge
their families into the utmost pecuni-
ary distress. Men know that business
is subject to fluctuations, and that
nothing is more frequent than that
men should in one year have all the
advantages and comforts of wealth,
and the next year be stripped bare.
But a vicious hOpefulness prevents
them from realizing that they shall
ever be subject to this fate which be-
falls others.


Men expect to live; they do not an
ticipate bankruptcy. When times
change and the pinch comes, it is too
late for them to make provision for
the family. The wife, the children,
the whole household, are suddenly
plunged into distress. Indeed, much
as the business man suffers for him
self, his own pangs are the least part
of the suffering.


1 have lived long enough to see the
over throw ola great many families
because the father, believing that he
should always live and keep them in
comfortable circumstances, had neg
lected to make an independent pro-
vision for them.


At the mans death the estate proves
either insolvent or is reduced to a
minimum. The wife, not trained to
business, is obliged to settle the es-
tate by agents. What with unskillful
management and carelessness, or even
sometimes deliberate fraud, the resid-
uum melts in her hands, and the wild
ow with five or six children to be fed,
clothed and educated, finds herself
alone aud penniless Habits cannot
be changed in a day. She has not
been trained to business. She may be
a good housekeeper, but she must earn
money, which is very different thing
from ordering a household skilIfully.
Some, utterly Overmatched, break
down under the trial, and the children
are scattered like young partridges
whose mother the hawk has devoured.


believe it to be the duty of every
man who is prosperous, out of debt,
and making money, to settle upon his
wife a certain amount of property,
which shall not be affected by either
his bankruptcy or his death. This
may be done by life assurance. -es-
pecially if it be policy which is not
forfeited by neglect of payment.
But still better way is to settle upon
the wife a good house and the furni-
ture. Then, if misfortune comes, the
man will still have q home. He will
be secure at the root, and may begin
again with some hope. Ifdeath takes
away the father, the nest remains.
The children do not need to be scatter
ed.


Some persons have questioned
whether a scrupulOus honesty would
allow one to hold back from creditors
any part of a husbands property. A
settlement of property on another,
while debt hangs over it, either for
for the sake of avoiding the payment
Of debt, or Of securing the family,
would be fraudulent, dishonest and
wicked. But if, while clear of debt,
the husband settles property on his
wife for the just maintenance of her
self and children, his afier debts have
no more claim upon that property
than if he had sold and transferred it
to a neighbOr instead of his own wife.
No man has a right to leave a family
whom he has accustomed to afluence,
liable to sudden and wasting poverty.
A provision made betimes, in proper
ty, for the safety of his family in case
of his death or bankruptcy, may be
accepted and employed by the most
sensitive conscience. l write strongly
on this subject, because / have seen so
much distress arising from the want
of this precautiOn.