The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-07-29
From AU the Year Round.
THE LIVES OF FIVE RICH MEN.

It is q common notion among the poor
and struggling that it is fine thing to be
rich and if wealth is not happiness, it is
yery near approach to it, Doubtless it is
rood thing to be rich, if the rich person
Knows the value of riches, and turns them
toa proper account, for his own advantage,
and that of his family, his friends, and his
fellow-creatures. Doubtless it is very sao
thing to be poor, to endure cold, hunger,
and nakedness or to owe debts which one
cannot pay. But when the mass OF people
come to the conclusion that, as rule, the
rich are much happier than the poor, and
that the poor have no compensation forthe
hardship of their lot, and the rich nc draw
backs on the luxury of theirs an error OF
serious consequences to their own well-be-
ing takes possession Of their minds, and
leads to that worst kind of idolatry, mon
ey-worship, and that worst kind OF here
sy, that it is everybedy's duty to get rich.
In. the course of not a very long life, L
have known the histories Of many persons
who had, to use the common phrase, "lots
of money"-money that they either ac-
quired by speculation, by industry, or sue
cessful commerce, or that they had inhe-
rited from their ancestors Out of seven
such people, whose histories I knew, five
were either very miserable in their minds,
disappointed in their hopes, or would
gladly have exchanged all their money
for something that poor people had, but
which unkind fate had not bestowed upon
them.
The first of these little histories is that
of q gentleman who had acquired mil
lion of money, at least, by successful COM
merce, and was able to retire in the prime
of life and strength, and marry for love
beautiful. sut II The world was fair before
them. They had town house and a
country house, and a shooting box in the
highlands.
They had a large library and picture
gallery, carriages and horses, and a
yacht. They had troops of friends, and
the respect of everybody who knew them.
They were hospitable and charitable, and
adorned every society into which they
entered But they were not altogether
happy after the first two or three years
of their welded life. Not that their love
diminished, but Fortune, which had given
them so much, did not give them every
thing. The gentleman desired an heir TO
bis estates, and the lady, with q large
maternal heart, desired child for the
sake of a child; and the desired boon,
for which she would have been SO CRATE
fnl and happy, was denied her. Beggars
came to her gate with twins in their arms,
and she sometimes thought such beggars
were happier than she at astethe sight
of an infant would so excite her envy,
and so deeply impress her with the sense
of loneliness, and Of undeserved misery,
as to produce paroxysms of passionate
hysteria.
Another little story is that of a success
ful manufacturer, but rude, unlettered,
and without much mental resource to help
him pass away his time, who retired from
business at the age of sixty, and built
himself splendid mansion-he called it
q castle-on the shore of q lovely lake, in
the highlands Of Scotland, far away from
the hi ghways of travel, in order that his
aristocratic seclusion might not be inva-
ded by tourists or desecrated by the pie
bian rail and the whiz of the democratic
locomotive. When the castle was fur-
nished, and his grounds were laid out TO
his order, he suddenly discovered he had
nothing to do to occupy his time. He
was no company to himself, and he and
his wife were mentally as opposed to each
other as vinegar and oil. Friends and
acquaintances occasionally came to visit
him but he lived too far out of the beat
en- track to expect visits from any but
idlers, and what the Scotch call "sorners," !"
and as his conversation was not amusing,
and he never lent or gave away money,
even such waits and struvs from the great
fold of humanity eiuoui venturcd into
bis remote seciuSion.
Hs was too proud 10 30 back to the
great city and recommence business,
which might have been the best thing for
him to have done under the circumstan-
ces So he continued to dwell in his
mountain fortress, without an object in
life, or any amusement that he cared
about. He had nothing to do but to fish,
or to shoot, and he cared nothing for Ell
ther of these modes Of pastime After
about six months of it, he ordered q boat
upon the lake to 60, as he said, fishing for
salmon. Unobservod by any one, he put
an old grindstone into the boat, and a
few yards of rope line, and rowed himself
away to the middle of the lake. He was
never seen again alive. The boat drifted
on shore without him in the evening, and
three days afterward his body was drawn
from the bottom of the lake with the
gripdstone tied round his neck.
The third little story is equally sugges-
tive. A very hard-worlzng professional
man, careful, prudent, abstemious, but
somewhat eccentric, retired from busy
life with thirty thousand pounds, in or
der, as he said, to enjoy himself, and pass
the evening of his life in the mild radi-
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