The Spenders

THE SPENDERS By H. L. Johnston If gold lay as thick as pebbles in a brook, few would stop to ■pick it up. But gold is not so redundant, and there must be an effort and desire on your part to gain a little for your own. The more sweat accumulating on your brow, the longer you wait, the more it is enhanced in your eyes after you get it. The normal man values a thing by the effort put forth in gaining it. If a man gets something for nothing, it holds very little value in his eyes, he has made no sacrifice, no exertion in getting it. It comes easy, and goes the same way. They call the men and women who inherit vast fortunes and spend it in wild living, wasters. These spenders, who never earned a dollar in their lives, are not to be blamed so much. They don't know any better. Money means nothing to them. They never sweat in an endeavor to acquire any. All their lives they have been taught to spend. There was always plenty of money, and when they spent what was in their pockets, they could always get more for the asking. They were never taught the value of a dollar. To them, money was like the pebbles in the brook, with the difference, that they didn't have to stoop to pick it up — doting fathers and mothers did the stooping for them. Father, or grandfather had done all the sweating there was to do. "Easy come, easy go," that's what the spenders say; they who never learned to appreciate what they had never earned. Of course, it is gratifying to parents to be able to respond to the desires of their children, but it is worse than cruel to give them all they ask for. Our children may be loaded down with gifts which give them no pleasure, because they have no desire for them. Nature has a way of educating our desires. Nature makes us wait. Nature teaches us patience, and when we want things a long time before we get them, the chances are, that when we do get them, we will know how to appreciate and take care of them. If we wait long enough, work hard enough, we will value what we get for our trouble well enough that we will never be classed as spenders. Every effort put forth in the endeavor to gain our desires; if they are worthy ones, helps to strengthen and build our characters as young men and women. The man and wife who work hard to build a home will have more happiness when they move into it, far more, than if it had been given to them without an effort or desire on their part. When parents give their children everything they ask for, they are weakening the power of desire and gratification. A child gains more pleasure out of a dime his father gives him for spading the garden than the son of a rich man would get from the present of a thousand dollars and has done nothing to earn it. Who make the best students? The boys and girls who are com-

822 IMPROVEMENT ERA polled to make their own way by their own efforts. When there is nobody behind them supplying the money, necessity gives them a train- ing in business which is their greatest asset. They are called upon to make sacrifices, and if there is anything in this world that makes for character it is sacrifice. They look trouble in the face and struggle along knowing that it will not always be that way. The boy and girl with a high ideal calling for a lot of hard work and sacrifice to attain will surely succeed. There is a lot of hard work connected with making a garden. When the ground is ready and the tiny seeds planted there comes a period of waiting, but there is a reward in sight. The harvest will surely be gathered. Think, then, of the happiness and gratification your summer's work has given you. You started the garden with an ideal and a promise. Faith in the promise of the tiny seeds — ideal in the bumper crop, all brought about through sacrifice and the sweat of your brow. A home is started. The husband and wife come from families where unselfishness and sacrifice rules. The husband toils and his wife schemes to help him in every possible way. Such a couple are bound to win. When they have won, they look back over the past and smile at the ingenious methods devised by them in keeping the wolf from the door. A poor man marries a girl from an overindulgent family. She has been pampered and money lavished on her. If she hasn't a level head and uses it to help her husband, she will perhaps have seven or eight charge accounts and will throw a bigger fortune out the back door with a teaspoon than her husband can shovel in at the front door with a scoop shovel. She spends his money freely, because the money comes to her without effort on her part. It isn't the sweat of her brow that makes the money. It is the effort of her over worked husband. Don't blame the spenders, entirely. They have never been educated in a way to teach them any better. There is a lot of truth in the old saying: "Easy come; easy go." Tobar, Nevada I Linger, But I Know Sometimes I love to linger At the close of a busy day, And dream of the beauty and promise Of the years that are far away. The great world stretches before me, Like a field fair and wide, Where joys may be had for the seeking Where never a wish is denied. But I know these are dreams only And that always, day by day, I must strive, and plan, and labor, And love, and hope and pray. San Diego, Cal. DOROTHY C. R.ETSLOFF