SMALL DEBTS.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1806, 16 October 1874, Page 3

SMALL DEBTS.

\COKTEIBUXED.)

G ho most troublesome of all debts are these small liabilities, incurred recklessly, and too often without a definite idea on the part if the deli tor as to the probability of payment.. These debts, though most numercms, are those which are less seldom heai'dof; simplYi itispresumed, because of their smallac.3s, TJnder the old law, if a man could indues confiding persons to permit him to get ink^heir booksior any -^RffiS^derableau^o^^iie might cover himself yviih the cloak of insolvency, and very often conae out of his " temporary difficult/" with something like satisfaction—Jo himself at least: in which cuse these social " misfortunes" are ieard of by the world. But the . littlo trifles'i-'tho diminutive ' accounts —are seldom known. If the ledgers of our shopkeepers, retailers of the " Fiery.-Demon, 1' and other traders were exhibited how many of these worthless items would be seen classed in the colmuns of the " loss " account; and justly so, for these debts ar« seldom if ever paid. Perhaps of all debtors, the small debtor is the .most contemptible. He runs up odd accounts indiscriminately, and, never exceeding a certain amount, rushes from place to plac« to leave his mark by (vul-garly-speaking) sticking up what be desirss. He is an abject creature, because he wants self-respect. He never goes through the public street, but he has to keep a sharp look-out for ♦•small-' creditors, and as sure as he observes one will pass over the road that he may not b y e j ••' stuck up" for the money he owes. He never .seeks to pay, and looks upon it as a . hardship that such should be expected of him by the trader who has so far mistaken his character as to take him for an honest man. Thus, like the questionably just but good-natured Dick Swiveller, he will often travel some considerable distance from his residence to get "over the way." This failing ia very general. It is a melancholy fact, but nevertheless true, that men who will tell you with indigna-. tionof the perpetration of some gigantic swindle, will themselves be guilty of "doing" a fellow for the sum of 3i 6d, and yet upbraid the man of superior intellect whose wicked intents soared above such petty cheatery as: he (the small debtor) would be guilty of. The only, explanation to this seems to be that a great many persons measure the wrong of not paying a debt by the amount of that debt; or of a sin of any kind by the extent of the consequences* entailed, mi the same manner as did one of Marryatt's charaoters—R young unmarried girl—who, when spoken to upon being a mother under such circumstances, remarked thatit (her baby) was "only a little one." There can be no more fatal error than this— an^ error .which often leads to greater...ones.r To. ovre a penny and avoid the payment thereof is as much to be condemned as to defraud for a thousand—the only qualification being that the latter is calculated to carry with it more serious consequences. ■•• ■•-'.:."' ■_; . ■-^- •■ Old Mog.