THREE RIVERS 



5801 



THRIFT 



then they are rolled over and over to form 

 thick coils of soft yarn. These coils are then 

 placed in the drawing frame, where they are 

 passed between sets of powerful rollers; in 

 these rollers the cotton is drawn out and com- 

 pressed into thin ribbons. These are fed to 

 another machine, the doubling frame, where 

 they are compressed : into fine, delicate strips. 

 Next, the strips are lapped, again drawn out, 

 recarded to eliminate unevenness or other im- 

 perfections, and then wound upon bobbins. 

 Several strands are twisted together and re- 

 twisted into a coarse cotton yarn, and this is 

 finally spun by several progressive operations 

 into the finished thread. The latter is either 

 bleached or dyed, and is then wound on wooden 

 spools for marketing. See COTTON; SPINNING. 

 THREE RIVERS, or, in French, TROIS RI- 

 VIERES, a city in Quebec, county town of 

 Saint Maurice County. Three Rivers is situ- 

 ated on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence 

 at its confluence with the Saint Maurice River. 

 It gets its name from a third river, the Becan- 

 cour, which empties into the Saint Lawrence 

 from the south a short distance below the city. 

 It is on the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk 

 railways, ninety-five miles northeast of Mont- 

 real and eighty-seven miles southwest of Que- 

 bec. The famous Shawenegan Falls, twenty- 

 three miles north, supply power for the city's 

 manufacturing plants. These produce lumber, 

 paper, iron pipe, machinery and tools of various 

 kinds, and boots and shoes. Population in 1911, 

 13,691 ; in 1916, about 19,000. 



Three Rivers is one of the oldest settlements 

 in Canada. It was founded in 1634 by Lavio- 

 lette, a lieutenant of Champlain. In 1775, at 

 the beginning of the Revolutionary War, it sur- 

 rendered to the Americans under Montgomery, 

 and in the next year was the scene of one of the 

 British victories which practically ended the 

 possibility of adding a fourteenth to the thir- 

 teen revolting colonies. 



THRIFT. This word, whether' applied to 

 plant life, individual human beings or to na- 

 tions, means a substantial and vigorous growth. 

 The word has no exact synonym. Frugality, 

 development, prosperity each conveys a shade 

 of meaning that is a portion of thrift, but the 

 word means more than any of these and in- 

 cludes them all. 



Thrift is a condition a condition implying 

 both growth and progress. As applied to the 

 individual, it is a habit that rises to the dignity 

 of a virtue, for it not only adds to the material 

 welfare of those persons who practice it, but 



it is contributary to the development of a 

 strong and worthy character. We find it em- 

 bodied in the philosophy of many of the 

 world's most profound thinkers. In Holy Writ 

 we find definitions of thrift that are applicable 

 to modern times. For example : 



He becometh poor that laboreth with an indo- 

 lent hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh 

 rich. 



He that gathereth in summer is an intelligent 

 son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son 

 that causeth shame. 



A rich man ruleth over the poor and the bor- 

 rower is a servant to the man that lendeth. 



Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; look on her ways 

 and become wise. 



Cicero said, "Economy is of itself a great 

 revenue." An old Latin proverb declared that 

 "No gain is more certain than that which pro- 

 ceeds from the economical use of what you 

 have." A couplet from Pope is as follows: 

 To balance fortune by a just expense, 

 Join with economy magnificence. 



Shakespeare declared "Thrift is blessing," and 

 again he said, "I can get no remedy against this 

 consumption of the purse; borrowing only lin- 

 gers and lingers it out; but the disease is in- 

 curable." One of the very best definitions of 

 thrift was given by John Wesley who said 

 "Make all you can, save all you can, give all 

 you can." One of the chief exponents of thrift 

 was Benjamin Franklin, who through the plain 

 philosophy of "Poor Richard" gave counsel on 

 the value of thrift that will doubtless live as 

 long as American literature is extant. 



Simon W. Straus, New York and Chicago 

 banker, president of the American Society for 

 Thrift and organizer for the modern thrift 

 movement in America, defined this virtue as 

 follows: 



Money saving is not the sum total of Thrift. 

 It is only one of the stones in the building of 

 character. Thrift means much more than the 

 saving of money. There is Thrift of character ; 

 Thrift of Time; Thrift of Health and Moral 

 Thrift. 



A man is not thriftless who spends money, 

 providing he can afford what he spends, and does 

 his duty otherwise to humanity and society. A 

 miser is an undesirable citizen and just as much 

 a menace to humanity as a spendthrift. 



Thrift is submission to discipline, self-imposed. 

 Thrift is denying one's self present pleasures for 

 future gain. Thrift is the exercise of the will, the 

 development of moral stamina, the steadfast re- 

 fusal to yield to temptation. 



Money saving is only a function ; it is thrift in 

 its most elemental sense. But the thrift I preach 

 is thrift in all things, and this is the thrift I hope 

 will be taught in the schools of America. For 

 this is the thrift that will give our beloved nation 



