OCR Text |
Show BOB INGERSOLL ON STINGY MEN.<br><br> I despise a stingy man. I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth $5,000,000 or $10,000,000 in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that and hold in the clutch of his hand $20,000,000 or $30,000,000, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber when hundreds of thousands were drowning in the sea. Do you know I have known men who would trust their wives with their hearts and their homes, but not with their pocketbooks -- not with a dollar. When I see a man of that kind I always think he knows which is the most valuable. Think of making your wife a beggar! Think of her asking you every day for a dollar or two dollars, or to humbly beg for fifty cents. "What did you do with that dollar I gave you?" Think of having a wife that is afraid of you. What kind of children do you expect to have with a beggar and a coward for a mother? Oh, I tell you, if you have but a dollar in the world, and you have got to spend it, spend it like a king; spend it as though it were a dry leaf; and you the owner of an unbounded forest. That's the way to spend it. I had rather be a beggar and spend my last dollar like a king, than be a king and spend my money like a beggar. If it's got to go, let it go. Get the best you can for your family, and look as well as you can yourself. When you need to go courting how nice you looked. Ah, your eye was bright, your step was light, and you just put on the very best you could. Do you know that it is insufferable egotism in you to suppose that a woman is going to love you always, looking as bad as you can? Think of it! Any woman on earth will be true to you forever when you do your level best. |