Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1884 — Extravagance in Living. [ARTICLE]

Extravagance in Living.

Such crimes as those of Ferdinand Ward, while they spring often from depravity, are oftener the result of mere weakness of character. Thackeray in many of his minor sketches constantly draws the portrait of the man and woman whose means are not equal to the style of living which they desire: and they desire it not for itself, but only because others have it. They are not strong and steady enough to be content with that which they can command and afford, and the means to secure the other must somehow be obtained. Thackeray puts the fact in the simplest and most amusing form. The young couple must give a dinner, and instead of the joint of lamb and the glass of beer, which is the only repast to which they have the moral right to invite a friend—if, indeed, the beer may be morally permitted—they must needs prepare a feast which they can not honorably afford, and for the sole reason that othei 1 people who can afford it give such feasts.

It is this doing a little more, or a great deal more, than the doer can honestly afford, "which leads to the swindles of Wall street. Living in a house too expensive for his means, maintaining it accordingly, dressing as his richer neighbors dress, doing in all things as they do—it is this weak compliance which is hidden in the fine houses, and drives to the park in the fine equipages, which presently ends in Ludlow Street Jail and hopeless disgrace. Yet it is the poorest kind of competition, because the little imitator might see even ■with his dull eyes that there must always be a few persons who can “do the thing” better than all the rest, and -without feeling it. The bullfrog may swell until he bursts, but he cannot rival the ox. This is the tendency which all sensible people—and a great many otherwise sensible people are swept away by it—ought to resist. The power of individual example is immense, but it is often underestimated by the individual. “My vote is of no consequence, but, since you wish it, I will vote,” said a man to his neighbor, and the right ' candidate was elected by a majority of one. The family which in the midst of a saturnalia of luxury and extravagence refuses to take part in it, and holds to a simple, moderate, temperate way, is diminishing the supply of Ferdinand Wards and Wall street panics. itor's Easy Chair , in Harper’s Magazine. No two things differ more than hurry and dispatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind; dispatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose; in constant motion without getting a jot; talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything, but sees nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them hot, and with those that are he only burns his fingers.— Colton. In the whole universe there are no agents to work out the misery of the soul like its own fell passions. Not the fire, the darkness, the flood, or the tempest.— Hr. Dewey. Those who live on vanity must not unreasonably expect to die of mortifica- j tion.