The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1873-02-15
The Neglect of the Rich.

Ii any OF the millionaires OF the City of New
York have felt grieved because we have not
called upon them, or because we do not even
know their faces when we happen to meet
them, we beg their pardon. We have had no
intention to slight them, or to count them out
OF the circle of humanity by reason of their
comparative independence of it. We do not
blame them for being rich, unless they have
procured their wealth by oppression OF the poor.
Some OF them have become rich because they
were brighter and more industrious than the
st s91ts, and recognized quicker than we the
elusive faces of golden opportunities. We can
find fault with them for this, hut rather
with ourselves. Some of them inherited wealth,
and have no responsibilities concerning it save
those connected with the spending of it. Some
of them acquired it by Accidentally the rise of
real estate that they had held, perhaps, un-
willingly, or by an unlooked-for appreciation
of the value of stocks. However their wealth
may have been acquired-always excepting
that which has been won by immoral practices
we wish to have them understand that we
think none the worse of them for their pleasant
fortune. We regard them still as men and
brothers, who delight in the sympathy of their
fellows, and whose hearts are warmed by the
popular confidence and goodwill.
We confess that we have never been quite
able to understand why it is that those who
have been fortunate in life should be compell-
ed in consequence, to sacrifice their early friend
life together. They may, or may not, be rela-
tives; butthey are bosom-friends. They con-
fide to one another their plans and ambitions,
and start out on the race for fortune, neck-and-
neck. One outstrips the other, and reaches his
goal gladly and gratefully. He has thrown no
hindrances in the path of his friend. He has,
on the contrary, encouraged him; and, so far
as it was proper for him to do so, given him
assistance. Finding at last that he is hope
lessly foundering in the way, or that he has
tripped and fallen, he goes back to him to ex-
change friendly word, but he is met by cold
looks and averted eyes The successful man
has committed no sin except that of becoming
successful. He has lost none of his affection
for his friend but he has lost his friend. Thence
forward there is between the two a great gulf
fixed, and that gulf is fixed by the unsuccess-
full man. He has taken to himself the fancy
that the successful man must hold the unsuc-
cessful man in dishonor, and that he cannot
possibly meet him again on the even terms
which existed when their lives were untried
plans.
There are few successful men, VIC imagine,
who have not been vexed and wounded by the
persistent misapprehensions and distrust of
those whom they loved when they were young,
and whom they would still gladly love if they
could be permitted to do so. There is not an
hour, on any day, in this city, in which thriv-
ing men do not cross the street to meet old friends
avoid them-not an hour in which they do not
try by acts of courtesy and hearty goodwill to
hold the friendship of those whom they have
left behind in the strife for fortune. Excepting
a few churls and coxcombs, they all do this
until they get thoroughly tired oft, and finally
give it up as bad job They know that they
have done their duty. They know that they
have not entertained thought or performed
an act of wrong toward those who shun them.
Their conscienees are clear, and, at last, half
in sorrow, half in anger, they consent that the
knot that once united two harmonious lives
aha.s s a,n - - W. pres
petty when iEcomeg to T1efeI, 0c1 SIR nun'
be- is small copnpared to those who cannot bear
the prosperity of others. There is nc finer test
of true nobility of character than that furnish
ed by the effect of the good fortune OF friends.
The poor man who rejoices in the prosperity
of his neighbor, and meets him always without
distrust and with mistaken self-respect, be-
trays unconsciously nature and character
which a king might envy. To such man
every rich man bows with cordial recognition,
while he cannot fail to regard with contempt
the insolent churl who meets him with bravado
and the offensive assertion ofan equality which
he does not feel, as well as the cowardly sneak
who avoids and distrusts him.
A great deal is said about the insolance of
riches and the neglect or disregard Of the poor
on the part of those who possess them, but, in
sober truth, there is neglect of the rich on the
part of the poor that is quite as unjust and quite
as hard to bear. If there is a gulf between the
rich man and the poor man, the latter does
quite as much to dig it and keep it open as the
former There are multtudes of rich men
whose wealth has the tendency to enlarge their
sympathies, and to fill them with goodwill,
particularly toward all those whom they have
known in their less prosperous years 10 these
men of generous natures the loss of sympathy
and friendship is grievous deprivation.
Money does not make the man. The poor
man will tell us this as if he believed it, but
either he does not believe it, or ne believes that
the rich man does not believe it certainly, in
his intercourse with the rich man, he does not
manifest his faith in this universally accepted
maxim. He merely accepts the rich mans
courtesies as condescension and patronage, and
is offended by them. No let no poor man talk
of the pride and superciliousness of riches un-
til his self-respectful poverty is ready to meet
those riches half way, and to have faith in the
goodwill and common human sympathy of
those who bear them.-F G. Holland Serb
ner'S for February.