Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-03-26
ulSGGl D a II 10 US.
DYING RICH.

An active business man is a raliona
man, and great blessing to the commu.
nifty. He keeps in exercise the talents
! cOnfded to him, making them a blessing
10 himself, and a source Of good to those
| by whom he is daily surrounded. He
/ furnishes employment for the industrious,
which is far better than bestowing aims
upon the unemployed. Herein are the
+ legitimate and rational results of active
business pursuits and wealth getting-lhe
employment of the qualification of the ac-
tive powers, and The reward of industry.
But the slavish toll of accumulation mere
| ly for the sake -cf possession-the lust of
cupidity-rhe remorseless desire of grow
ing rich solely or principally to die rich,
is one OF the most foolish and debasing
intentions which find lodgment in the heart
of man.
What can the praise, if praise i, be,
have to do with the dull cold air of death!
What can it profit one, when he is lower
and more insensibIe than the sod, 10 have
il sounded above him, 'fIow rich he died!"
Experience has fully and emphaticaly
taught the lesson, that much wealth lefl to
heirs is, in eight times out of ten, not a
Blessing, but rather a curse. It's expecta-
ton beguiles and spoils the manly powers;
its possession leads to mis-judgment, to
excess, and finally 10 exhaustion and ruin.
Wealth is dangerous to all men, but espe-
cially to those who acquire it by inherit
ance, and consequently without having
sustained the toll or secured the maturity
of character that was necessary to its ac-
QUESTION. The time will yet come when
men of wealth will be wise enough to
make a gradual distribution Of their prop.
erty while living-not prescriptive, but
operative-thereby having an eye to the
use that is made of it, and participation
in the greatest enjoyment its possession is
capable of giving, that of seeing it do good
to others. They will dismiss the foolish
spiration-fooIsh, especially in this coun-
try, where there are neither laws of pri-
mogeniture or entail, by which a success
sion of family milionaires may be kept
up-of dying rich, with the certain re-
n Il, bo hi l.
die poor. To use borrowed but energetic
language on this subject: "After hyQOcriles
the greatest dupes the devil has are those
who exhaust an anxious existence in the
vexations and disappointments of business,
and live meanIy and miserabIy only to die
magnificent and rich
For. like the hypocrite, the only dsin
terested motive these men can accuse
themselves of is that of serving the devil
without receiving his wages; for the assu-
med morality of the one is not more
effectual bar TO enjoyment than the real
ayarice of the other. He who stands
every day at the ledger till he drops into
the grave may negotiate many profitable
bargains; but he has made a single bad
one, indeed, that more than counter-balan-
ces all the rest; for the empty foolery of
dying rich, he has laid down his health,
his happiness, and his integrity; since. as
a very old author observes, "mortar stick
eth between buying and selling" Enter
prise and activity in business, and pas
sion for honest money getting are good
things in the world, and he who uses his
talents and capital in this way is bene-
factor to his race-but he who does all this