Year: 1869

THE VALUE AND USES OF MONEY.


People, at least, some people, have
strange notions about what money is for.
They toll all their lives to accumulate,
deprive themselves Of the ordinary CONS
forts, to say fothing Of the luxuries, and
when about to die, they are filled with
regret that they have spent anything for
board and clothes while living. Such
creatures are indeed objects of pity and
contempt. The press often supplies them
with juicy food. The Elmira Advertiser
gives them choice morscl in the following
paragraph: .........r


''Once in while pensive man NAV be
heard to say Il wish had all the mons
ey back that l have spent in drinks for the
past ten years. Not one man in twenty
who, retrospectively gazing, gives utter
ance to that wish, has in his mind an ap-
proximating estimate Of the amount which
a person of even moderate bibulous pro-
pensities may spend upon drink in the
space Of ten years. Leaving wines and
expensive liquors quite out Of the ques-.
ton, let us see what plain cocktailist or
moderate imbiber of old rye is likely to
disburse on his arorite refreshments irf
the course Of year. Take very moder-
ate man as sample. Assume that he
drinks every day one glass of ale at ten
cents, and four glasses of whiskey at ifs
teen. That amounts to seventy cents a
day, which makes four dollars and ninety
cents week. Multiply by four, and you
have nineteen dollars and sixty cents q
month, which comes, you know, to two
hundred and thirty five dollars and twenty
cents year. Thus, if the man who had
carried on at this rate for ten years had all
his liquor money back, his pocket would
FIVE hundred and two dollars. This is
only small beer calculation; but think
of the men who spend five times this
amount on liquors, and remember their
name is legion"


This is sheer nonsense and nothing else.
1t will do no good to talk to man who
drinks liquor about what it costs, for that
is the last thought that enters his head.
1t is rare thing to find an easy drinker
who is miser. If liquor is good for man,
ard when drank in the moderate quanti-
ties named in this estimate, costs no more
than the sum stated, then it is not much
to pay in ten years. There are thousands
who pay this amount and even more for
liquors under the advice of good and skill
full physicians, and consider it money well
invested. Convince man who drinks
liquor that it is doing him injury and he
may discontinue its use, but it will rarely
do any good to talk to him of what it
costs. An appeal to his cupidity won't
pay.


Life, in the enlightened nations Of the
world, is supported by large expenditures
to crafty the taste-luxuries are insepara-
Bile from existence with considerable
class. In barbarous countries the habits
of the people are simple and frugal, and it
costs but trihe to maintain existence.
1t would be difficult task indeed to in
duce the enlightened people to adopt the
practices of the barbarians, so far us lux
uries are concerned. Yet it might per-
haps be shown that physically and NOR


ally they might be better for so doing. 1t
{ ia idle To prate to peonle who are living In


luxury about the cost of such living, and
it matters not for what they spend their
money so long as it is for what they de-
sire. The man who quits any practice,


good or bad, even thatof drinking, simply


because it cost something to indulge it, il
pitable creature drunk or sober.