Spending
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain Advice for Plain People
" What their fathers got with the rake they throw away with the
shovel/' — Page 141.
TO earn money is easy compared with
spending it well ; anybody may dig up
potatoes, but it is not one woman in ten that
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SPENDING. 141
can cook them. Men do not become rich
by what they get, but by what they save.
Many men who have money are as short of
wit as a hog is of wool ; they are under the
years of discretion though they have turned
forty, and make ducks and drakes of hun-
dreds as boys do of stones. What their
fathers got with the rake they throw away
with the shovel. After the miser comes the
prodigal. Often men say of the spendthrift,
his old father was no man's friend but his
own, and now the son is no man's enemy
but his own : the fact is, the old gentleman
went to hell by the lean road, and his son
has made up his mind to go there by the
fat. As soon as the spendthrift gets his
estate it goes like a lump of butter in a
greyhound's mouth. All his days are the
first of April ; he would buy an elephant at
a bargain, or thatch his house with pancakes,
nothing is too foolish to tickle his fancy ;
his money burns holes in his pocket, and
he must squander it, always boasting that
his motto is, u Spend, and God will send."
He will not stay till he has his sheep before
he shears them ; he forestalls his income,
draws upon his capital, and so kills the
142 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
goose which lays the golden eggs, and cries
out, " Who would have thought it ? " He
never spares at the brim, but he means, he
says, to save at the bottom. He borrows
at high interest of Rob'em, Cheat'em, and
Sell'em-up, and when he gets cleaned out,
he lays it all either upon the lawyers or
else on the bad times. Times never were
good for lazy prodigals, and if they were
good to them they would be bad for all the
world besides. Why men should be in such
a hurry to make themselves beggars is a
mystery, but nowadays, what with betting
at horse-races, laziness, and speculating,
there seems to be a regular four-horse coach
running to Needham every day. Ready-
money must be quite a curiosity to some
men, and yet they spend like lords. They
are gentlemen without means, which is
much the same as plum-puddings without
plums.
Spending your money with many a guest,
Empties the larder, the cellar, and chest.
If a little gambling is thrown in with the
fast living, money melts like a snowball in
SPENDING. 143
an oven. A young gambler is sure to be
an old beggar if he lives long enough.
The devil leads him by the nose,
Who the dice so often throws.
There are more asses than those with four
legs. I am sorry to say they are found
among working men as well as fine gentle-
men. Fellows who have no estate but their
labor, and no family arms except those
they work with, will yet spend their little
hard earnings at the beershop or in waste.
No sooner are their wages paid than away
they go to the " Spotted Dog," or the
" Marquis of Granby," to contribute their
share of fools' pence towards keeping up the
landlord's red face and round corporation.
Drinking water neither makes a man sick
nor in debt, nor his wife a widow, and yet
some men hardly know the flavor of it;
but beer guzzled down as it is by many a
working man, is nothing better than brown
ruin. Dull droning blockheads sit on the
ale bench and wash out what little sense
they ever had. However, I believe that
farming people are a deal better managers
144 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
with their money than Londoners are, for
though their money is very little, their
families look nice and tidy on Sundays.
True, the rent isn't so bad in a village as in
the town, and there's a bit of garden ; still,
those Londoners earn a deal of money, and
they have many chances of buying in a
cheap market which the poor countryman
has not ; and, on the whole, I think 'tis
very good management which keeps a
family going on ten shillings a week in the
country, and bad management that can't
pay its way on five-and-twenty in London.
Why, some families are as merry as mice in
malt on very small wages, and others are
as wretched as rats in a trap on double the
amount. Those who wear the shoe know
best where it pinches, but economy is a
fine thing, and makes ninepence go further
than a shilling. Some make soup out of a
flint, and others can't get nourishment out
of beef gravy. Some go to shop with as
much wit as Samson had in both his shoul-
ders, but no more ; they do not buy well ;
they have not sense to lay out their money
to advantage. Buyers ought to have a
hundred eyes, but these have not even half
SPENDING. 145
a one, and they do not open that ; well was
it said that if fools did not go to market
bad wares would never be sold. They never
get a pennyworth for their penny, and this
often because they are on the hunt for cheap
things, and forget that generally the cheap-
est is the dearest, and one cannot buy a good
shilling's worth of a bad article. When
there's five eggs a penny, four of them are
rotten. Poor men often buy in very small
quantities, and so pay through the nose ;
for a man who buys by the pennyworth
keeps his own house and another man's.
Why not get two or three weeks' supply at
once, and so get it cheaper ? Store is no
sore. People are often saving at the wrong
place, and spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of
tar ; others look after small savings and for-
get greater things ; they are penny wise
and pound foolish ; they spare at the spigot,
and let all run away at the bunghole.
Some buy things they don't want, because
they are great bargains ; let me tell them
that what they do not want is dear at a
farthing. Fine dressing makes a great hole
in poor people's means. Whatever does
John Ploughman, and such as work hard
146 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
for their daily bread, want with silks and
satins ? It's like a blacksmith's wearing
a white silk apron. I hate to see a ser-
vant girl or a laborer's daughter tricked
out as if she thought people would take
her for a lady. Why, everybody knows a
tadpole from a fish, nobody mistakes a poppy
for a rose. Give me a woman in a nice
neat dress, clean and suitable, and for beauty
she will beat the flashy young hussies all to
pieces. If a girl has got a few shillings to
spare, let her buy a good bit of flannel for
the winter, before she is tempted with bright
looking but useless finery. Buy what suits
yourself to wear, and if it does not suit other
people to look at, let them shut their eyes.
All women are good — either for something
or. for nothing, and their dress will generally
tell you which.
I suppose we all find the money goes
quite fast enough, but after all it was made
to circulate, and there's no use in hoarding
it. It is bad to see our money become a run-
away servant, and leave us, but it would be
worse to have it stop with us and become
our master. We should try, as our minister
says, " to find the golden mean," and neither
SPENDING. 147
De lavish nor stingy. He has his money
best spent who has the best wife. The hus-
band may earn money, but only the wife
can save it. "A wise woman buildeth
her house, but the foolish plucketh it down
with her hands. " The wife it seems, accord-
ing to Solomon, is the builder or the real
puller down. A man cannot prosper till he
gets his wife's leave. A thrifty housewife
is better than a great income. A good wife
and health are a man's best wealth. Bless
their hearts, what should we do without
them ? It is said they like to have their
own way, but then the proverb says, a wife
ought to have her will during life, because
she cannot make one when she dies. The
weather is so melting that I cannot keep up
this talk any longer, and therefore I shall
close with an oldfashioned rhyme —
" Heaven bless the wives, they fill our hives
With little bees and honey !
They soothe life's shocks, they mend our socks —
But don't they spend the money ! "