Year: 1873




! pecially, and even to persons old enough
/ to know better, the sight of thrift and
canniness in others is not entirely pleas
ant. At any rate, whatever most people
may think, the notion abroad in society,
as that notion appears to the young, is
the thing of main Importance, because 1T
is the young with whom such sentiments
have the most influence. Their impress
sion seems to be that a spendthrift
is an amiable and rather attractive char
acter, while prudence and forethought,
In the matter of money, certainly do not
attract and perhaps repel little Per
haps there are reasons why almost all
men should be better pleased with the
spectacle of extravag gance than that of
thrift. The great mass of men are shift
less and unsuccessful; have been, ac-
cording to their measure of opportunity,
eXtravagant, and have therefore COM
mon sympathy with extravagance Even
the hard and tight-fsted rather prefer
the sight of those they can fleece than
! the neighborhood of those who are able
to take care of themselves. But even
with the mass of working, careworn hu-
manity, as long as extravaganza does not
assume an immoral or groveling form,
there is something pleasant in its con-
temptation. Another reason for mems
tolerance of the spendthrift may be that
| he is or soon will be in need Of our COM
miseration, while the wise and prudent
youth will get on very we'll without US.


If thrift meant selfshness, and impru-
dence meant unselfishness, there might
be some color Of reason in the prejudice.


But, at the best, it is only a question be-
tween wise selfishness and foolish selfish
ness. The money of spendthrifts is
always spent on themselves, even if they
pour it out in the lap of young COM
panions. They are never philanthropists;
! they never seek out those to whom their
money would be bread and health and
! life. Extravaganza is a quality which we
associate with youth, and youth we
always admire and tolerate. But in a
very young man, where is the generosity
of spending what he can not know the
value Off If friend gives you a hun
dred-dollar bill under the impression
! that it is a piece of tissue-paper for
! which should you credit him-for the
hundred dollars or for the piece of tissue
! paper? If he knew the value of the
thing he throws away, he would not be
in haste to part with it; so that the diff
/ ference between the spendthrift and his
prudent acquaintance is only that he is
the more ignorant of the two.


One of the most inferior and common
est forms of selfishness is selfindulgence
the unwillingness to sacrifice the pres
ent to the future. The essence of virtue
is the sacrifice of the present to the fu-
ture; selt-indulgence, though we may at
times excuse and tolerate it, is always
inferior. Between q niggard and a spend
thrift, on the score of nobility alone,
there is not very much to choose


The young are deceived by their
Fictitious and distilled ideas concerning
money. Every dollar with which the
spendthrift is SO willing to part repre-
sents so much of toll in the past, and,
possibly enough, a greater amount of toll
or wretchedness in the future. To shell
out bank-bills, your good fellow thinks
very sweet and decorouss But suppose
he had to chop wood, or set type, or write
up briefs to the amount spent before
spending it, would our young friend be
likely to be so lavish would he recognize
anything especially graceful in putting
on his apron or setting himself down to
his law books? Rousseau seems rather
to accuse himself of being a stingy man
He protests that he had no love of
money, but that he found that whenever
his purse was full he had comfort and
dignity and content, but that he found
that whenever his purse was full he had
comfort and dignity and content, but
that when he had no money he was very
wretched. The spendthrift should re-
member that. if it be graceful to spend,
1T is exceedingly ungraceful to beg or to





sooner or later. The truth is that the
dissertation of a man from the idea of
money is quite necessary to the main
tenance, If not of his dignity, at least of
his seemliness. The man who is driven
to straits where it is necessary to ask his !
friends for money, whatever may be his
worth or wisdom, must inevitably cut
most humiliating figure.


1t was one of the follies of Robert |
Burns to imagine that saving was a
sordid and small occupation. The poor
cleaner of his bread from the sterile |
Scottish glebe might be pardoned that |
weakness and despair, if anybody could. |
1t was the apparent hopelessness of MAX
ing headway against his cruel fortune |
which made Burns affect to despise the |
painstaking thrift of his neighbors, not |
sense that it was mean or inferior He |
must have admired their stern courage, |
their heroic poverty. His shiftlessness
was not due to the possession OF genius, |
but to his self indulgence and irresolu-
tion. We who have milder difficulties
and more lenient fortunes, are without
the excuse of his unhappy circumstances,
and must not make the mistake of at
tributing that to his greater qualities
which is really due to those human weak
nesses which he shared in common with
his kind


The truth is that economy is always a
necessary and noble quality is often a
heroic one. 1t is especially fine in those
men who care little for money in itself
Thrift may become passion just as self
may become passion; it is
the duty of reason to curb and regulate
both. The man who has once begun to
save soon finds it to be a greater pleasure
to add fifty dollars to his little pile than
to spend that sum upon a tailor or a
caterer. As soon as he begins to confuse
the means with the end, reason should
that the present has its de-
mands as surely as the future has its
exigencies. So, when long habits of self
have taught one TO think that
he must have everything he wants, it is
good to learn to deny himself 1t is odd
to see the tricks and deceptions we play
upon ourselves. We judge Of our needs
by our habits. ''We used to pay so much
for our dinner" I'VE used to 60 to such
place for our summer vacation; whether
We need to get such dinner, or go to .
such a hotel, does not occur to u.s. {
The great virtue of economy, we may ,
'emark, is to economic to-day and not |
tomorrow, for in the future virtue looks
attractive, and then it has none of those
)rosaic difficulties which beset it Just
low. 1t makes not the least difference 1
bout the triviality of the economy a
Truth and wisdom are qualities which
,nnoble any action they may touch,
however sordid and common these "
.otions may seem to our prejudiced and i
inaducata6 avas q