Year: 1877




There is not an edition of daily paper
that does not contain in its columns notices
of failures and bankruptcies, and the names
of honorable business men are given as the
sufferers. There is not a day that do not
see men looking careworn and anxious. their
faces marked by the long strain of mental
uneasiness. The care for their families, the
fear of unredeemable loss, combined with
overwork and incessant application, are un-
dermining many of the strongest constitu-
tions, and killing men who could have
withstood the attacks of disease, but who
succumb to the insidious encroachment of
intense labor with the brain. | have seen
how rapidly the furrows are marking brow
and cheek, how tremulOus the hand and
how weak the body, and have counted the
fearful wages paid for the coveted luxuries
and elegancies of life, the strength and vigor
of manhood gone long before the fiftieth
milestone is reached. But the strain upon
hands and head once begun, where
Is il TO cease? Men at twenty-five
exhaust every cent of their yearly income
to meet the annual demands, and at 40 and
80 they only increase their salaries to in
crease their wants, and there is never
month or even a week for physical or ment-'
al recuperation. For the amount of money
We spend we are the poorest fed, the mean
est clothed, the worst housed of any nation
under the sun. AS a rule We consider
neither the limit of our purse nor of our
necessities, but spend our entire possession
regardless of the possible and probable ex-
actions of the time when sickness or age
will render us incapable of further remu-
nerative labor. And because we are inn
provident, because we have so little fore
sight, we are having "hard times" and we
will never launch out upon calm sea of
prosperity until We learn to reckon ahead"
How many of the men who five years ago
received good weekly or monthly wages,
paid promptly, were in the slightest degree
prepared for the financial dark days of the
past twelve months? How many
bookkeepers, clerks, travelling agents. me-
chanics, laborers, had saved enough to sup
plement the meagre wages now given or to
bear them safely over months of enforced
idleness? How many men to-day who have
only their salaries as income are out OF debt
in this community? 1t would not be diff
cult to count them. If the panic has taught
us nothing else, if its lessons have been only
oppressive to us and not fruitful, we have
learned something of economy and pru-
dence, and the future will bear ample evil
dence of its suggestions and commands of
denial and sacrifice. The easy days that
generally succeed such dull times as these
are but the grand results of combined econ
omy and steady attention to the small out
lets whence flow so much of the income of
the masses. The people learn while they
have but little money to make every dollar
spent furnish its entire equivalent in nee
essary food, or clothing, or fuel, and while
nothing may be laid by yet nothing viii be
wasted, and the maxim is universal that it
is not want but waste that ruins This whole
subject is widespread in its bearings and its
dealings, lavish prodigality as a nation
has crippled our resources, until now states
men and public economists are asking, Where
can we retrench2 What useless or extrava-
CANT member can be Topped Off How can
we live as people cheaper? But in detail,
more minutely in every city, men are ask
ing themselves and families the same ques-
ton. II five years ago their incomes barely
carried their expenses, what shall meet the
deficit when the expenditures remain the
same and The wages are but half? And il
the answer IS ne. quick, positive and avail
able, failures aud bankruptcy are inevitable.
1t is folly to argue about the matter. We
must economize or suffer, and perchance
for our past extravagancies we will suffer
somewhat, even with stringent prudence.
And men can not arrest the crash; they can
not save business and homes unless the daily
expenses of the family are never allowed to
exceed certain limits that can only be fixed
by prudent wives and mothers. / have
seen men of years, with the
gray hair clustering thiclabout their brows
looking careworn, carrying with them their
load Of financial anxieties, fearing ruin any
moment, whose families never for one mo-
ment appreciated or tried to relieve the bur
dened mind Mansion and cottage differing
only in amount but not in principle are the
great drains upon the revenues of men, men
who work for their families, who would
rather slowly wear out their lives in the
treadmill of business worry and difficulties
than harrass or annoy their loved ones with
their embarrassments.