The Nevada journal., 1860-06-08
CONTEMPT OF Wealth.

say smart things in contempt of wealth.
Even at this utilitarian day, there are sour
grape philosophers who make epigrams on
riches, and from pinnacles of beggarly pride
look down with affected scorn at the money
seeking crowd as Simon Stylites viewed
from his pillar of torture the comfortable
multitude who came to wonder at his myriad
genufectIons, prayers and superhuman en-
durance. We find one fellow saving The
neglect or contempt of riches makes man
more truly great than the possession of
them" Now your lofty philosopher should
not be moved by so low a feeling as con-
tempt toward anything and even if it were
true that contempt of wealth is grea mess,
how can poor man have it, since, accord
ing to the proverb, it is familiarity that
breeds contempt? Sometimes knowledge
comes vicariously, but the most of us must
seek it with our own lanterns, as Diogenes
sought for an honest man hence the gen.
eral signing for that familiarity with wealth
which breeds contempt for it Oh for that
constant dropping of dollars which wears
away the hardness of pride
But seriously, let us say good word for
wealth-we who have it not. The genial
essayist who satirized it as the ~ almighty
dollar meant more than satire and lived
W oc Hltsltr Ol Il quarter OF q nllllOn UNITS
of fortune. He knew that wealth is power;
that it is the Archimedean lever which
moves the world. At least. it is the great
motor of civilization. 1t built cities, the
birth places and nurses of freedom 1t COW
cred oceans with the wings of commerce,
that went like flags of truce from warning
nation to warning nation, and opened the
way to peace. 1t made the forceful elements
steam and the subtle lightnng-the docile
servants and fleet messengers of man. 1t
has explored seas and found new lands. 1t
has swung the axe of progress against con-
tlnental forests, and they have fallen like
grain before the reaper. 1t has wrested from
the feeble and unproductive grasp of savage
men the scepter of empire. and placed it in
the conquering hand of civilization. It has
built academies of learning, arts and sci
ence, and even temples to the Most High
1t has raised the eyes of men above the
earth, leveled telescopes at the heavens ex-
plored space and found it populous with
myriads of systems of worlds.
No less has it been busy in humble works.
contributing 10 the comfort and elevation of
the individual man, raising hospitals for the
INDECENT. the sick. the physical and moral
bankrupts Of society and for those who
came into the world lacking The complement
Of natural gifts, without the capital of per-
feet manhood Whether emplovcd launch-
ing the Great Eastern. con tructinga wind
pil for the poor of remote Jerusalem. sink
ink wells in the deserts, carpeting the hum
bleSt dwellings and adOrning them with the
instructive beauty of pictorial art. inyenting
utensils for domestic convenience or instru-
inerts 70 cheaper the garments of oar race:
whether high or low be its works wealth is
constantly ministering to the Improvement
and happiness of mankind, and proving it
self to be the potent handmade Of progress.
the practical realizer of the ideal
II is our slave-toiling increasingly for the
meanest of us. The aggregate wealth of
earth works for every human being on it
As you cannot fence out of sight of the land
less lovery scenery and the tender sky that
overhangs it, nor deprive them of the influ-
ence flowing from it-propertv though You
call it-so the benefits resulting from the
employment of wealth in every form cannot
be confined to the capitalist, brt radiate to
all. Capital invests in railroads in ocean
steamers, i'll trans continental stages and
4 expresses, in lines of telegraph in palatial
ediices, in great newspapers, in eloquencc
but the man whose purse has been trod on
by the elephant poverty, or who never had
a purse, enjoys all these things in some de-
gree, and is often a made man by them
The whole land blossoms with the enter
prises of wealth. but the perfume steals over
I the fence to the baretooted vagabond-
: Wealth is truly the slave of that rusty old
:, lump the earth. Wo only to those who are
Il slaves in turn to wealth. mistaking the means
c for the end l-Hydru,dic Press