THE HABIT OF BORROWING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 35, 29 August 1891, Page 327

THE HABIT OF BORROWING.

It is the easiest thing in the world to begin by be rrowing a newspaper, then a pattern, then a recipe, then a book ; some day a gown is borrowed to look at; another day one is borrowed to try on to see if it would be becoming ; then a little note goes asking that a fan be lent; and the fan once borrowed it becomes the easiest thing in the world to get either a bodice, a bonnet, or an embroidered petticoat. Now, when you began, if anybody had told you that you were a moral thief, you would have been most indignant; and yet that is just what you are. It would be much more honest to borrow your neighbour’s money and never to return it, than to keep up a constant borrowing of your neighbour’s belongings, getting out ot them the wear that is not yours and the pleasure that is by rights your neighbour’s. What the mistress does, the maid does. In the kitchen they do not hesitate to borrow a patent coffee-pot and never return it; a pudding-dish, a little flavouring extract, some baking-powder or some oil. If they were asked if they returned all this, they would answer : * Certainly not, why we would be just as glad to lend to them.’ And the result is that your servants imitating your example, become systematic plunderers of your neighbours. My friend, do not get into the habit of borrowing, ft is one of the most vicious you can possibly acquire. It makes yon lose all respect for the rights of other people, and it can certainly give you none for yourself. The persistent borrower is a more or less well-spoken-of thief. The borrower does not bide her light under a bushel, for in time her friends and acquaintances grow to know of her weakness and avoid her. So stop at the book, and do not permit yourself to drift into what it is charity to call a very bad habit.