| Show ILL GOTTEN GAINS dy by BRUCE BARTON very few ot of us have a chance to accumulate ill gotten gains by robbing other people but how many men do you know who have accumulated ill III gotten gains by robbing themselves 9 al I 1 know one at least and lie he a millionaire either he is 13 a farmer in the middle west rest As a kid I 1 spent a w ek in his home he confided to me the first day I 1 was there that he and his wife had nearly five thousand dollars in the bank that five thousand dollars was their god to which they made humble sacrifice in every conscious minute of their lives at meal time when I 1 reached out for a slice of 0 butter commensurate with a normal boys boya appetite they reminded me that butter was selling atso at so much a pound when I 1 asked for a glass of milk they passed over a pitcher of thin blue stuff from which most of the nourishment had been extracted and sent to the creamery the only son of that household hou hau died because he was too mean to consult a doctor the wife Is dead the farm has been sold alono alone and friendless for friends involve some expense the father lives in a bare little room denying himself decent clothes good food having no pleasure but the constant figuring and ana re figuring ot of his savings the habit of 0 providing tor for a rainy day has made all his days rainy he has coined the sunshine into brass pennies and bartered daughter tor lor dimes ill gotten gains agns there is a great deal of 0 head wag ging these days about the extravagance of the modern young folks they a are re living beyond their means they are mortgaging the future by buying on installments they are laying up a lot ot of trouble tor for themselves in the dark days to come undoubtedly part icart of this talk Is sound there will some day be a period of slow business in these united states and a lot of annoying obligations will come due all at once many folks who are now having their good times will have to go through a few years of 0 hard times before they can be happy again and those who have no courage will be broken all this is true but trio ane old fash cloned notion that the chief end in life I 1 if a steadily and that one must eliminate all pleasures from his vigorous years in order to prepare for possible want in old ago this notion Is passing and should never return life is made to live mid and enjoy as you go along I 1 cineas the wise old philosopher once asked pyrrhus what he be would do when he had conquered italy 1 I shall conquer sicily and after sicily then africa and after you have conquered the th world 1 I shall take my ea easo ease so and be merry then as naked ked cineas why can you not ta take e your ease and lie be merry now emerson had a friend who said that he would like to raise fruit enough so that there would the ibe some to eat some in the store some to give away some to be robbed of and some to rot on the ground in other words the habit ot of giving away or even wishing a bit ot of the good things ot of lite life is lust just as important as the habit ot of storing up for it if one resists too long the impulse to give or oven even to waste a little the impulse will go away and he may whistle in vain tor for its return somewhere between the old time thrift that knew no virtue except self denial and the too easy spending ot of today there is a happy middle ground we shall arrive at it in due course meanwhile I 1 tor for onto one am perfectly willing to let my old age run a reasonable risk it if self den dem ia al I 1 Is necessary ill practice some ot of it when im old and not try to do all ot of it ii now I 1 for who knows knowli sI be old colliers mar 6 I 1 |
