6B. "Haves" & "Have-nots"____From rags to riches____[Informal]

The novels of Charles Dickens document people's great fear of poverty during the 19th century. Even those who were bringing in good salaries would put by part of their earnings in case they fell upon hard times. They would put away the family silver in locked drawers in case they ever had to take it to the pawnbroker's shop. A wife who was afraid of her husband's drinking habits would keep back anything she came by which her family could fall back on in a crisis. Generous gifts could always be pawned at a later date. Some women even turned to prostitution so that they could lay on treats for their children.

The average 19th century family had to do without many things which we would now regard as necessities. They certainly had to pass up the opportunity of family holidays. There were numerous officials who would bring in money owed,

but no state departments to give out income support or social security benefits.

The hardest thing for men to cut out was also the cause of family ruin. They could do away with all the food in the pantry, but they could not give up the bottle.

Alcoholism figures prominently in novels of this period, but readers liked happy endings. Consequently, mobility is not always downwards. There are also many "rags to riches" stories where orphans come in for unexpected fortunes and take over from discredited landlords as the owners of large estates. Let's hope these heroes don't take up drinking and become like the pigs in George Orwell's "Animal Farm". 

Earn, produce as revenue	Bring in	Forego, waive	pass up
Obtain, come to have	Come by	Forego, manage without	do without
Receive (money)	Come in for	Abandon, cease doing	give up
Store	put away	Abandon	cut out
Set aside	put by	Abolish, get rid of	do away with
Depend on (in a crisis)	fall back on	Provide facilities	lay on
Collect	Bring in	Distribute	give out
Start	take up	Conceal, withhold	keep back
Change places with	take over from