, 1863-05-16
Worth of Monav-

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property. A house is worth ten thousand
dollars that lot is worth fifty thousand a
horse three hundred carriage five hun
dred; and so on endlessly. But ought not
the question sometimes be put the other
way, how much is a mans money worth
There is wider range in the value of
money than most persons think. And, up
on little inquiry, suspect it will be found
that all men who possess money, or who
long to possess it, have a way of measuring
it; not by dollars, but by It's value in some
sort of pleasure or article.
One man earns a thousand dollars, and
says to himself, there that puts me one step
out of debt" Money to him is a means Of
personal liberty. A man in debt is not a
freeman. The borrower is servant to the
lender"
Another man sees in a thousand dollars
a snug little homestead, home for his chill
dren, a shelter to his old age, place to
live in, and good place to die in But
his neighbor only sees one more link in the
golden chain of wealth. 1t was thirty mine
thousand last month, it is forty this And
his joy is in the growing numerals. He
imagiEes how it will sound, full, round and
hearty, when men say, "he is worth hun
dred thousand dollars" Nay, when it
comes to that he thinks five better sound
than one, and five hundred thousand dol
lars is a sound most musical TO his ear
though he loves better yet to call it half
million The word million cuts a great
swath in mems imagination. All this es-
innate of money is sheer ambition. This
man is vain He thinks much of himself
on account of money, not of character. A
man who is openly proud of money is Sc
cretly contemptuous of those who have
none.
Another man wishes to see the world
Every dollar means travel. A thousand
dollars means Europe Two thousand dol
lars means Egypt, Palestine and Greece.
Boys dealing in smaller sums reckon in
the same way. A penny means a stick of
candy ; sixpence is but another term for
ball shilling means a knife; and fifty
cents jack knife.
The young ''crack" sees in his money a
skeleton Wagon and fast nag arousing
trot, a jolly drink, and a smashing party.
But many and many a weary soul sees
in every shilling, bread, rent, fuel and
clothes There be thousands who hold on
to virtue by hands of dollars a few more
saves them few less and they are lost.
Their gayer sisters see feathered hats and
royal silks in their money, or rather their
fathers and their husbands
The poor scholar passes daily by the
stall where books tempt his poverty. Poor
clothes he is content to wear; plain and
even meagre diet he is willing to subsist
upon and, as for all the gay dissipa:ions
and extravagant wastes of fashionable life,
he looks upon them without even under
standing what they mean, as a child looks
upon the milky way, in the heavens, a
glowing band of far away and unexPlored
wonders. But o, those books He looks
longly at morning he peers at them with
gentle covetousness at night. He mag
ines new devices for earning few dollars.
He ponders whether there is not some new
economy which can save few shillings.-
And when good luck at last brings a score
of dollars to him, with what fervor of haste
does he get rid of them, fairly running to
the stall and fearing, at every step, lest
some fortunate man should have seized the
prize. Wasteful man That night saw
too much oil burnt out in the overpouring
joyful treasure Books arc what his mon
ey is worth But others see different Wis
ions Money means flowers to them. New
roses, the latest dablia, the new camelia,
or others Of the great horiband of flowers
that fill the florists paradise-the garden.
Some men see engrsvings in money /;
some, pictures, some rare copies old books;
some, curious missiles. Others, when you
say money, think of fruit trees, of shrub
berry, of aboretums. And we have reasons
to believe that there are some poor wretch
es who, not content with any one insanity,
see pretty much all these things in turns,
But there are nobler sights than these to
be seen through the golden lens of wealth;
a father and mother placed in comfort in
old age; a young man helped through
college, or established in business friend
extricated from ruin; poor widow saved
from beggary, and made a suppliant before
God for mercies on your head, every day
that she lives the sick and unfortunate
succored, the orphans educated, the school
founded, the village lined with shade trees,
a free library established, and thousand
such like things. A man is not to be
known by how much money he has. but by
what that money is worth to him. If it is
worth only selfshness, meanness, stingi-
ness, vanity, and naughty state, a man is
not rich if he owns a million dollars. If
it means generosity, public spirit, social