appiness"_]
Credit in business is worth more than money because it allows for
expansion whereas money in the bank is only good _as far as it goes_.
Many a merchant who bought and sold for cash all his life found when he
came to enlarge his business that one thing was lacking--_credit_. The
fact that he had always paid cash threw a doubt upon his financial
condition when he proposed to borrow. He had neglected to build up a
credit as he went along. The business world only knew him as a man who
paid cash and exacted cash. Taken at his fullest inventory he had
"scalped" a living out of the world for which he had done but little to
make happier or better. One calamity might easily scuttle his prospects
forever--for instance, a fire, or a bank failure. And without credit it
would be difficult to start over again.
By all means we must save something for the "rainy day" as we go
along--and our savings can be made up of other things than actual cash
in bank. One item of our savings is the habit of _keeping up our
appearances_. Living beyond our means does not incorporate the thought
that, in order to save every possible cent, we should become slipshod
and shabby. Carelessness in dress takes away from our rating as nothing
else will for it has to do with first impressions of those with whom we
come in contact. Gentility pays dividends of the highest order, being,
as it is, a badge of character. Neatness _bespeaks character_, and it is
just as cheap in dollars and cents to keep ourselves respectably clothed
as to indulge in shoddy apparel under the delusion that we have saved
money on the purchase price. Good clothing, costing more at the start,
lasts long _and looks well as long as it lasts_. Shoddy apparel never is
anything else but shoddy, and well might it proclaim the shoddy man.
When we throw away our opportunity to present a genteel appearance, just
for the sake of the bank roll, we doom ourselves to defeat in the
pursuit of knowledge. We cannot get all we want to know by the mere
reading of books. We must mingle with people; we must interchange
thought that we may crystallize what we know into practical knowledge so
it can be made into tools to work with. While a man of brains is welcome
everywhere the matter of his appearance has a lot to do with how he is
received and with whom he may fraternize.
"Isn't it a pity," we hear people say, "that, with all his brains, he
hasn't sense enough to make himself presentable?
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