Reflections at age 78 on life, personal expenses, walking (Hazard Diary 220)
Hazard Diary Transcription page 220
Peacedale R.I. June 9, 1884
I have no hesitation in stating, in my 78th year, I feel quite sure I have never done anything in my life, that was so entirely right, that I might not have done it better had I properly considered what I was doing, at the time thereof. There is no limit to capacity of improvement. We learn to walk with much stumbling.
Nevertheless, I know, at least, fully believe—I may say, I never spent a dollar, a penny, or whatever sum, for any purpose whatever, that I believed to be wrong, nor for any thing, whatever, that I need hesitate a moment, to here state in full, in writing, -- That I have no one thing to hide or fear in the least, in regard to the purposes to which I have devoted my personal expenses, and of which, I have endeavored to note every penny of my personal expenses, since I arrived at Twenty years of age. –Before that period, I presume I had never spent Two Hundred dollars, --all told. And I doubt, if I had spent even half that sum, before I was Twenty years old –my parents—more particularly my mother—having always supplied my needs—which—so simple the habits in which I was happily educated, --were very trifling.
I have never owned a horse or vehicle, nor desired to, preferring to walk, any practical distance—rather than drive—to a degree, that notwithstanding my having travelled on every Continent, and many years, I have rarely hired a Hack, even to take me to a Hotel, or Rail Station, or any Thing of the kind. Especially in foreign countries, where I preferred to walk to it, for sake of seeing what may be seen between Rail Stations, [illegible], and the Hotel to which I had sent my luggage. I hold as a maxim that “those who drive are not likely to see so much as may those who walk.
Jos. Peace Hazard.
Transcription by Jessica Wilson