The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1853-03-24

LECTURE FOR RICH MEN.-Coi. Cummings,
of the Evening Bulletin reads the following brief
discourse touching the Indebtedness Of rich men:
can pay my way, and am obliged TO nobody
is frequent expression of the selfish rich man. We
fancy we can see him, while he wters it; with his
purse-Prou, defiant look, buoning up his pocket as
u he thought you thief.
ou can pay your own way, can you? You are
obiIgsd to nobpdyi Good sir, we don't believe YOU
Know what you say. That you can pay your pecuni.
AIRY debts, we nave doubt, bat those it seems TO
US, are the least part of your obi cations You owe
duties u society as man, citizen and a million.
aise, OF which, perhaps. YOU have never thought:
certainly not as debts 10 be paid in Your own pe SON
ana by an expenditure of your time, and thought
and money Ny dear sir, consider this well. Do
not live and die in the false belief that because YOU
owe thus debt to society in the abstract, heaven will
never require Ms payment ut your hands. Do not
imagine either. that you delegate its auidation
to others. No weil-salaried minister-no sleek v;s
itor OF the poor, can become your middle man in this
matter, dong your work for you. Monopolize your
time IN mere money max ing, and suffer Your heart 10
grow as hard as steel, as all hearts w that never
come into contact with human misery.
~ can pay my way" you say" 81 obliged to
nobody" Perhaps, as yon utter these words, you
look rebukingy at some poor debter, who has failed
to meet his engagements. Beware o, rich man
"ludge not, least We be jrdged.' You know not
what defects IN early training, what cruel disasters
OF fortune, what treachery the part OF others NAV
have led to his bankruptcy. With all his errors,
and even faults, for probably he has been entirely
free from either he may yet be better man, taken
all IN all, than you with your bank stock, Your mort
cages, your ships, and your real estate. He may not
neglect his children, you, absorbed in you specu-
latons, probably do, leaving their moral training to
others instead OF experimenting ii yourself He may
BE- trner husband, not acting you perhaps do, as
II wife was either slave playihing, and not a
companion. He may be a kinder friend, a more
conscientious citizen, man better imbued with the
thousand sympathes of humanity. Believe us, there
are more crimes than being in debt, though where
debt comes from imprudence reckless spirit Of
speculation, IT is, heaven knows, bad enough
. can pay my way,' you say, '' l am Obliged TO
nobody You are obliged the contrary, to
every teIluw-creature with whom you are thrown
into contact, either in social life or in business -
Without their courtesy, their attention, their kind
ness their society," you would be the most miserable
creature alive. Every hour you live You are indebted
TO some ellow-being for attention or other and
1t Is only because they freely and commonly
gwen like the AR OF heaven that you do realize
their value The time will come, If it has not
come already, when some great family atflicton shall
teach you that, with all your riches YOU are but a
fraii, helpless human creature and that hour of
gret and heat-wrung agouy, you will recognize at
last even ii but tor moment, the precious boon of
common sympathy; you will feel how much you owe
after all, TO yonr fellows.
Thank heaven all rich men are not Ike yo,,,-
There have been many, IN every generation, who c.
knowledge that they other debts than pecuniary
ones, and who strive faithfully quidate them
her number Is increasing, with each sue.
cesSive generation. When the day arrives, as we
believe most firmly 1T will, when all rich men shall
recognize the obligation they owe to society the
millennium, in one at least, viii have come
Then may the nch man truly say, {" can pny my
way; | am obliged to nobody"