Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1873-12-25
Nasby's Letters.
The Philosophy of Samuel j. Lamison,
and How IL Worked.

sumed wings. Samuel did not weep at
his fathers demise, for the old gentle
man had accumulated his ducats with
great care, and by great labor, and, con-
sequently, was very, very close with
them. He was singular old man. He
never knew the taste of champagne, and
always smoked pipe.
But he left young Samuel a fortune
of an even hundred thousand dollars,
which the young man lost no time in
transferring to his own keeping.
Immediately Samuel's relatives gath
ared about him to advise him as to what
to do with it.
One said, 60 into a grocery business
and become a merchant prince? Aa-
other strongly insisted that his best
hold was to 60 into railroads with his
capital and be Vanderbilt. Another
advised, With tears in his eyes, that he
90 into dry goods and be Stewart Or o
Clafiin. Ano Ter was divided in opin-
ion as to whether he ought to start
daily paper or run theatre; but Samuel
dismissed him with frown.s" He hates
me, and would ruin me. quickly" "quoth
the sagacious young man.
81 shall do nothing of the sort, said
he. 81 shall adopt none of your sug-
gestions."
"You will be ruined if you do not !"
shouted they all in chorus.
GAS not one of you has succeeded in
making a cent" retorted Samuel cit
strikes me that you are fearfully COM
petent to advise me. But have marked
out my path in life.
"What is it?"
81 shall, firstly, get rid of all my
poor relations. Then 1 shall invest
what the old M that is, my poor
father left me, in safe security bearing
10 per cent. =, AN nm
per year."
"True, but I shall not live on $4,000
per year. shall live on about $40, 900
year. I shall have horses, an interest
in a yacht, shall join all the clubs, shall
never drink water when wine is attaina-
ble-in short, I shall go for pleasure in
every possible way that pleasure is to
be had"
"But you will run through your for
tune while you are still young"
"That's the time to run it through,
while I am young enough to enjoy it.
What, oh idiots, is the good of fine
dinner to q mali whose stomach is worn
out, and who is too much used
up to eat it? Wherefore
wine to him whose stomach can't abide
wine? Wherefore anything to man
who can't take anything? 1would pre-
fer it, had l income enough to live just
as desire without infringing upon my
capital, but as I cannot, propose to
live my life anyhow. Fate has been
cruel to me in not giving me 5000, 900.
I shall never feel pleasant toward my
deceased father that he did not labor
harder, and live more saving. He has
used me badly. But 1 am q philoso-
pher. Samuel j. Lamison proposes
now to drain the cup of pleasure to its
dregs."
Samuel went in, in the language of
the prize ring, in very spirited style.
He kept fast horse, he drank wine, he
gambled q little, and, if his feminine
friends had been virtuous in proportion
to the amount of moley he spent on
them, Caesars wife would have been a
drab i'll comparison with them. But
they were not. On the contrary, quite
the reverse.
He had severe fit of sickness viii Il
nursed his estate little; but he man.
aged, by hard work, to get through with
the most of it in about ten years.
"Your money must be nearly gone, !"
said his friends to him one day.
81 have about a thousand dollars
left," said he.
Horrible - said they.
beautiful !" said he. "My stomach
is also almost gone. How lovely it is
to have your money hold out as long as
your stomach. Had one gwen out be-
fore the other-I shudder at the
thought. To have an appetite and no
E1oney-or to have no appetite and
cords Of money! know not which is
the worst. But with me it is splendid.
Things run in grooves, as it were. A
few more dinners, few more nights,
and my stomach will be gone, and my
money with it. But / hare had good
time of it."
"What will you do them"
"lmpious wretch, do you read the
Scriptures? Sufficient for the day is
the evil thereof In my case, can
testify to the truth of that passage eve: :
day. Then again, take no t!.ought o
the morrow"
As he anticipated, in a few weeks
Samuel had not a dollar-not a cent
left. He lived n few days on crediS,
and then spent several days considering
whether suicide by poison OF drowning
was the most pleasant. After giving
the subject mature consideration, he
concluded that he would not die at all,
and accepted a situation as n porter in
a wholesale grocery store, whose pro-
prietor had known his father.
He was rolling barrels one day, when
his friends came in.
"Ha!" said they. "You see, now,
we were right-you are brought down
to manual labor at thirty"
Precisely what myphysicians would
have prescribed for wasted constitu-
tion like mine" said he, ch rully.
81 am gaining flesh under it."
They came in again and saw him eat
ing brown bread and ham.
"Haw they remarked, "You ~
brought down to plain food. We told
you so.
"My friends" said he, impressively.
"were I the possessor of millions, 1
shnnld after ten Years of destination