128 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



maay a better maa than you has to settle iu the same 

 way." 



Jones : " And suppose I don't meet it in two 

 months !" 



T. : " O, but you will. Tat-ta, be ready when I 

 look in." 



The bill was drawn, but whether Mr. Jones met it 

 we cannot say. We know, however, that many bills 

 drawn under the same circumstances are not met — that 

 many names for the same reason figure in the Gazetle> 

 and that many men thus are doomed to ruin. 



And this is not only true of Jones, but of good honest 

 men in fifty different trades. Why, do we not read in 

 this very 4th of January's Times an account of the 

 Sultan's being mobbed by three hundred creditors, who 

 had supplied the palace with food, and could not get 

 paid? A deputation of three was admitted to an audi- 

 ence. No money was forthcoming ; promises were 

 given, and the majority of the three hundred within a 

 week were in consequence sold up, and reduced to hope- 

 less poverty. 



The relation between the wholesale and retail trader 

 on the one hand is very exactly defined — punctuality is 

 the soul of that connection ; while, on the other, 

 between the retail trader and his customer it is unusual 

 to recognize the existence of any relationship. The re- 

 gular demand of the wholesale house is not to be trifled 

 with ; but when the retail trader seeks for the means to 

 satisfy it, his customer oftentimes proposes pleasant 

 games at Hide-and-seek, Bo-peep, and Tom Tiddler's 

 ground. If a gentleman declines to pay, the course is 

 clear ; but if he promises to pay, and yet delays to do 

 so, the course is not so clear. And the credit system of 

 this day enables men who are up to the game to main- 

 tain a splendid appearance upon nothing of their own, 

 save a prodigious stock of impudence. Many great 

 shams of this sort have lately been caught and ripped 

 up, displaying an emptiness past belief. Such men are 

 found to glory in their shame, and exalt to a science the 

 mean tact that averts a just claim. Timon has many 

 faithful associates who ease their consciences with the 

 following formula — Debt is exchange, and exchange 

 is no robbery. 



Far be it from us to charge the generality of those 

 who are in the habit of running bills with any design to 

 defraud or injure the tradesman. Nothing of the kind. 

 But yet it seems to us that the fact of a bill just means 

 this : when the articles mentioned therii vrere ordered 

 there did exist a present inability to pay for them ; and 

 if so, it becomes a question, particularly if they were 

 articles of mere luxury, whether they should have been 

 bought at all. If there is any difficulty in paying for 

 them at the end of six months, without question they 

 should not. The facility is so great, that people go on 

 buying without thinking what they can afford ; and for 

 want of calculation or self-denial in this respect they im- 

 bitter their own days, and impoverish those whom their 

 custom, if properly regulated, is designed to benefit. 



We put it to our readers, whether it is honest to take 

 long credit on articles sold for cash, so to make up the 

 deficiencies of a small capital, at the expense of the gro- 



cer, the butcher, or any other trader. This is not called 

 roguery, but it is very much like it ; and the " home- 

 trade" would certainly be more thriving without such 

 doubtful patronage. 



There is one class of men with absolutely no excuse 

 for this conduct. The farmer's is essentially a ready- 

 money trade ; and they are placed in a most favourable 

 position to bestow the same benefit upon those de- 

 pendent upon their custom. On the whole, we believe 

 them to constitute the safest class, and the best pay- 

 masters in the world ; but the pride of a large holding 

 dims many a man's better judgment, who seeks in the 

 credit system a means to avert the consequence of an 

 error, and finds in it only destruction to his peace of 

 mind. There is, too, a disastrous tendency to specu- 

 late in corn with other people's money. Mr. , who 



put his sample into his pocket to-day, and determined 

 to wait for " the turn," did not think, perhaps, of the 

 sore shifts to which several individuals will be reduced, 

 by having thus to wait for their money. 



The Ist of January should be a day of joy and hope 

 to everyone; but to those who see in it only an accu- 

 mulation to the heavy drag-weight of debt, that bears 

 down their heads before the public gaze, from which 

 they shrink, it may well seem to cry, " I come with re- 

 newed claim — sharp angry claim — no peace I bring 

 thee," 



There are many now suflTering from this January 

 fever, and in various degrees. Amongst them there are 

 those who need our sympathy, and there are those who 

 do not deserve it. Some are chronic long-standing 

 cases, said to be incurable. 



To those whose symptoms allow room for hope, par- 

 ticularly to those who have only begun to experience 

 the remarkable uneasiness that distinguishes the attacks 

 of this malady, we beg leave in our medical capacity to 

 hand the following prescription : 



PAY YOUR DEBTS. 



— to which we append these directions . 



Do not buy what you do not want. Pay cash for 

 what you receive, if you can ; and if you cannot, make a 

 point of doing so before six months have run. 



In case this advice is taken, we guai-antee a cure, and 

 can most positively predict a Happy New Year. 



WINDOWS OPENED MORE WOULD KEEP 

 DOCTORS FROM THE DOOR.-A very large quantity 

 of fresh air is spoiled and rendered foul by the act of 

 breathing. A maa spoils not less tlian a gallon every 

 minute. In eight hours' breathing a full grown man spoils 

 as much fresh air as seventeen three-bushel sacks could 

 hold ! If he were shut up in a room seven feet broad, seven 

 feet long, and seven feet high, the door and windows fitting 

 so tightly that no air could pass through, he would die, 

 poisoned by his own breath, in a very few hours; in 

 twenty-four hours he would have spoiled all the air con- 

 tained in the room, and have converted it into poison. 

 Reader, when you rise to-morrow morning, just go out of 

 doors for five minutes, and observe carefully the freshness of 

 the air. That air is in the state in which God keeps it for 

 breathing. Then conic back suddenly into your close room, 

 and your own senses will at once make you feel how very 

 far the air in your chamber is from being in the same 

 wholesome and serviceable condition. 



