Until debt do us apart
By Roshni Johar

FAILING to strike a balance between one’s income and expenditure, have landed world’s many renowned personalities into heavy debts.

History has it that Socrates the great Greek philosopher was so impoverished that he often had to borrow a rooster for his meals. Even when he was dying, he remembered having to pay a small debt. He said to one of his disciples, "Kritto, we owe a rooster to Aesculapius. Pay the debt and do not ever forget it".

The famous Daniel Webster was taken to court for non-payment of a butcher’s bill.

Even the famous American legendary figure Abraham Lincoln went into debts when his grocery store business with a drunken as his partner, failed miserably. It took Abe 11 long years of hard labour and sacrifice to pay back every dollar he owed and that too with heavy interest.

However, Mrs Abraham Lincoln was more renowned as a debtor than as an American President’s wife. She ran so heavily into debts that after she left the White House, she was forced to sell her famous dead husband’s shirts with his initials embroidered on them! She even sold her jewellery, furs and clothes.

"I have never refused money to anyone, except to my creditors", is what Alexander Dumas the French eccentric writer and dramatist had once grandly announced. Indeed it was habit of exaggerated generosity that forced him into large debts. Apart from this, debts piled up when he built a magnificent mansion in Rennaisance style called "Monte Cristo" complete with a Gothic pavilion and English trapping. Ultimately, it was his daughter Petel who rescued him from penury.

Another victim of exaggerated generosity and lavish entertainment was Oliver Goldsmith, who was in perpetual debts, with his landlord and milkman constantly nagging him to pay them their dues.

Robert Burns the famous Scottish poet’s conscience always pricked him for the paltry sum he owed for a volunteer’s uniform. Mirabeau till his death, could not pay his tailor for his wedding suit.

Lord Byron, William Cowper, Ben Johnson, Savage, Daniel Defoe, Dostoevsky and Richard Steele, though they were famous literary giants, were rarely out of debt and thus always had a rough and a humiliating time at the hands of their creditors. Even Rembrandt the Dutch painter and Wilhelm Richard Wagner the maestro of opera spent the major part of their lives quite penniless.

However, Sir Walter Scott did fall into debt but for a different reason. He went into partnership with M/s Ballantyne & Co., a printing firm which went bankrupt, leaving him penniless. To pay a part of his arrears, Sir Walter Scott though he was paralysed, wrote for 14 hours a day for four years. He also wrote the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte in nine volumes in a record time of 13 months. Though he died in debt, Sir Walter Scott’s insurance and the sale of copy of his novels eventually paid off the remainder of his arrears, finally clearing his name of the blemish of debt.

Richard Sheridan the famous playwright once told his tailor who demanded interest on his dues, "It is not in my interest to pay the principal, nor my principle to pay the interest." Richard Sheridan also owed money to his grocer, milkman, baker and butcher. He squandered away his large wealth.

It is said that Mark Twain lost everything except his kitchen stove. Owing a large debt of approximately a hundred thousand dollars. Though he hated lecturing, he travelled round the world to lecture in order to pay off his arrears. which he finally did so in six years.

Famous French actor Jules Berry was constantly in debt as he habitually bought things on credit. But he had a unique way of dealing with his creditors. When their letters for payment became insistent, he wrote to them, "Dear Sir, Every month I put all my bills in a hat and pay the first one I draw out. This is to inform you that if you continue to annoy me, you will not participate in the next month’s draw."