The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-08-30
The Pleasures Of MiSers.

Breakfast Table," dlscOurseg thus in tht
last AtdAbe:: % IN = So
IhGveBh1diet the people called miSetl
and thought o good deal about them. In
former years used to keep little gold b.
me In order to ascertain Tor myself exact
ly the amount OF pleasure TO be got out o.
handling II; this being the traditional de-
light Of the old.Gashloned miser. Il Is By
no means to be despised. Three or foul
hundred dollars In double eagles will dc
very well 10 experiment on. There |.
something very agreeable In the yellow
CLEAN, very musical in The metallic clink
very satisfying In the singular weight, and
very stimulating In the feeling that all the
world over these same yellow disks are the
master keys that let one In wherever he
wants to go, the servants that bring pretty
nearly everything he wants, except viz.
tue-and a good deal Of what passes for
that. confess, then, 10 an honest liking
for the splendOrS and the specific gravity
and the manifold potentially Of the royal
metal, and understand after d certain i'm.
perfect fashion, the delight that an old
ragged wretch, starving himself in a
crazy novel, takes in stutiing gulneas into
old stockings aud filling earthen pots with
sovereigns, and every now and then visit.
ing his boards and lingering the fat
pieces, and thinking over all that they
represent Of earthly and angelic and dia.
bolic energy. A miser pouring out his
guineas into his palm and bathing bis
shrivclled and trembling hands into sthe
yellow heaps before him, q not the pro.
SAFE being we are in the habit Of thinking
him. He Is o dreamer, almost o poet.
You and read novelor poem to help
our imaginationS to build up palaces, and
transport US into the emotional states and
the delicious condition OF the ideal
characters pictured In the book we are
reading. But think OF him and the sig
niticanCc Of the symbolic he Is handling
as compared with the empty syliables and
words we are using to build our aerial
edihco With In this hand he holds the
smile Of beauty and in that the dagger
otrevenge. The contents Of that old glove
will buy him the willing service OF many
an adroit sinner, and with what that coarse
sack contains he can purchase the prayers
OF holy men Tor all succeeding time. In
this chest is q castle in Spain, a real one,
and not only in Spain, but any where he
will choose TO have it. If he would know
what is the lberality Of Judgment Of any
OF the straiter sects, he has only TO hand
over that chest OF rouleaux to the Trus.
tees OF one Of its educational institutions
for the endowment Of two or three pro.
lessorships. II he would dream oil being
remembered by coming generations, what
monument so enduring as college build.
ing that shall bear his name, and even
when its solid masonry shall crumble give
place to another still charged with the
same sacred duty Of perpetuatips his re-.
membrance. Who was Sir Matthew
Ilolworthy, that his name is household
word on the lips Of thousands of schol.
ars, and will be centuries hence, as
that OF Walter de Merton, dead
six hundred years ago, Is to-day
at Oxford? Who was Mistress Holden,
that she should be blessed among women
by having her namespoken gratefully and
the little editlce she caused to be erected
preserved as her monument from genera
ton to generation? all these possibilities
the lust of the eye. the lust OF the flesh,
the pride OF lie; the tears Of grateful or.
phans by the gallon; the prayers Of West.
minister Assemhly's CatecAism diVines by
the thousand; the masses of priests by
the ccntury;-all these things, and more
if there be that that the imagination of
lover of gold is like to range over, the mi.
ser hears, and sees and feels and hugs and
enjoys US he paddles with his lean hands
among the the sliding, shining, ringing,
lnnocent.looking bits Of yellow metal, toy.
ing with them as the lion-tamer handles
the great carniverous monster, whose
might and whose terrors are ohild's play
to the latent forces and power Of harm
doing o! the glittering counters played
within the great game between angels
and devils.
l have seen q good deal Of misers, and
l think l understand them as we'll as
most persons do. But the Capitalists
economy in rags and In his llberality TO
the young doctor are very oddly con-
trasted with each other. should not be
surprised at any time 10 hear that he had
endoweda scholarship or proIessorship,
or built o college dormitory. in spite Of
his curious parsimOuy in old linen.