Show Dorothy Dix Talks BETWEEN THE MISER AND THE Ti-fE SPENDTHRIFT ILL I'LL TAKE THE MISER SAYS DOROTHY DIX AT LEAST HE DOESN'T PREY ON OTHERS BUT TO SPEND YOUR INCOME IS THE MEANEST SORT OF STEALING FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO MUST SUPPORT YOU WHEN YOU ARE OLD to the There is a golden middle course A MAN said me other day A AMAN in the use of money that we Yie se should follow We should neither hoard houd it nor throw It away But between the spendthrift and the miser give me tao the spendthrift every time I replied of the two r- r Not so with oe me ne I will take the tha th miser because he at least 4 doe does I not prey upon his fellow creatures and 4 force them to support him when he is II sick 1 or out of a job or gets too old to work Furthermore at the last the money he has hac raked and scraped together does some good for when he dies he Is II bound to leave f it behind him and many a school many an a hospital have been r orphan asylum many j built with the dollars and dimes dimel some tight tight- tightfisted tight fisted fisted ed old man enan or woman woma could not riot let go In Ini-a Ini life whereas the wasters waster's money has b been been en a thousand foolish ex- ex extravagances extravagances frittered away upon that have really benefited no flO DIX IX one except those who purvey to the self indulgent self self- Indulgent T 4 me please I hold no brief for the tightwads I U think that no vice is more sordid than avarice I think you OU can big that 11 It shuts out vision bold a penny penny before your our eyes until it grows rows so and sweet and tender and beautiful the vision of everything this Is worship of ot money can harden a heart lovely In life I think think- that the until no feeling of sympathy for for- misfortune no cry from suffering can even enn dent It so that It Is even eHn Impervious to what we call caU natural human emotions for their pocket pocket books I know men who care so much more books than they do for their wives that they never give thema them who make nake of them unpaid slaves a cent for their own use whose very food they begrudge I know wives who tremble with fear every time they have to present a household bill and to whom the first of every month Is a aday aday to their husbands t aa tk that fr day f terror when they hav have to go through scenes humiliate them to the dust and that sicken their very souls much better than balance so I T KNOW fathers who love lore their bank banle 1 deny their boys and girls the I they do their children that they In of education that would fit them to make successes I opportunity that would make makeI and little Indulgences me lIfe and the pretty clothes I their youth happy and joyous Instead of o being hard and bitter i And as 85 I look at these men I wonder that they do not see seo what cruel they are to families and how host a wrong wron they are doing to their their and children hate them themselves for they are c making b by their stinginess I think that men and women do a foolish thing who save every cent they possibly can and who deny eny themselves every comfort and pleasure We pass PUI this way but once All the time we we are re sure of is II Just today and If we do not get some enjoyment out of life ai as we wego go along we get none at II all I COR OR we can deny ourselves until wo atrophy all aU of o our desires We e FOR S can do without comforts without good food without pretty clothes until we no longer want ant them and even It if we had them they would bring us no no pleasure The thing thine that you OU want so se badly now and that would give you such joy jo to do or to possess you may not want ant at all five to ten years hence We e cant can't say that we- we will be happy when we have ac accumulated ac- ac accumulated accumulated cumulated or tor for the tho one thing that money wont won't ont buy is that subtle and elusive spirit that makes enjoyment So I think we are wise to take our pleasures as wego we wego wego go to Indulge ourselves In everything we can with with- within withIn within in reason without losing sight of the necessity to save UP something for that rainy day that Is sure to come to us all allBut But to spend everything you make make I Is criminal It Is dis dishonest honest It la Is I th the tha meanest sort lort of stealing because It robs In the sacred nil name me of friendship and family affection and duty It steals from those thoe who have no possible way of protecting themselves from you MOT NOT long ago a man mans man mansI I knew very well ell died For twenty years heIl hE be beL L had been getting a salary o of a year ear He had no one to support except himself and his wife yet when he passed on his entire estate consisted d of ot a second hand automobile and a couple of ot hun bun hundred hun hun- hundred bundred dred dollars In the bank He had never neer bought a home He had bad never taken out any life Insurance He He had never saved up any any- money Ho lie had bad lived up to hIs Income and aU all of o It had gone rone In eating and drinking and theatres and taxis and fine clothes and entertaining His wife left was a a middle aged woman a semi-Invalid semi with no trade or profession utterly Incapable of supporting herself She couldn't be left to starve so 1 she had to go to live with her brother who Is a poor man with a large family to support And the remainder of her ber days she must graft her ber living off oft those whom she has no right to compel to sup sup- support support support port her Every day all about me I 1 see fathers and mothers living I up to the last cent of their Income Instead of saving part of It to take care of them in their old age Ige and I wonder that they never think of what a wrong they are ara doing their chil chil- children children chil- chil children dren I wonder that they do not realize what a cruel thing ItIs It ItI ItIs I Is for parents to be parasites that suck their childrens children's lifeblood life lifeblood lifeblood blood And this Is what often otten happens when their children are forced to support them MANY H young men meE men and women cannot marry because they have bave to take care of their fathers and mothers Thousands of ot young yount married couples who can barely support themselves and their own children have their burden made a crushing one when they have Ia fa add to It ft the care of of or their parents Sometimes this In unavoidable Sometimes a man and woman have never been able to earn more than enough for tor their dally daily needs But In the great eat majority of ot cases the dependent parents are de dependent pendent on their children merely because they th y were wasteful and ex extravagant extravagant and too self indulgent to deny themselves the gratification of every passing desire Whenever you see people buying automobiles when when they should b be buying a home and wearing silk Ilk when they should have on cotton you may be sure ure that their children or some some- somebody somebody somebody body else will have to take care of them when they are old AND AND It Isn't playing the game But the grubs always have to pay the butterfly's bills bill Wherefore I say that between the the waster and the spender and the miser I prefer tho miser who ho at any rate doesn't pass pas around the hat But the Ideal la Is I to have neither holes holu In your pockets nor a padlock on your purse pur Be generous without being ex cx extravagant thrifty without being penurious penurious Halfway between Monte Carlo and the tha poorhouse pool I Is a good place to live DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger |