Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-03-20
A Martyr to Leisure.

Robert Dale Owen, in his Autobiogra-
ply, thus describes one Of his fathers
partners in business:
A man of letters, educated to every
classical attainment, and the inheritor of
a princely fortune, this gentleman had
been able to crafty, at a wish, his cult
waited tastes. His marriage was fortu-
nate, and his children grew up around
him with the fairest promise. He had
handsome town house in a fashionable
square in London, and country seat six
or eight miles off in the midst of Que of
those magnificent EngSsh parks-the
ideal of stately rural elegance-with it's
trinity kept lawn and its wlde-spreading
chase. dotted over with clumps of noble
old trees, where the deer sought refuge
from the monday heat, and lair at
nightfall.
Its owner had travelled over Europe,
and brought back, as mementos of his
journey, paintings and statuary by some
Of the best masters, ancient and modern,
with which to adorn his favorite retreat.
The house itself, in which l spent some
happy days, with its rich marble columns
and balustrades, was fine specimen of
the purest Palladian manner, where all
that luxurious refinement could devise
had been unsparingly lavished.
There my father-during brief inter
val in his own public life of incessant
bustle--found his friAnd, with no occu-
patton more pressing than to pore over
the treasures of his library, and no graver
care than to superintend the riches Of a
conservatory where wealth had brought
together, from half the world, its choicest
plants and flowers. They spent some
days Of undisturbed quiet; not an Incl
Il n fl,no of of
and intellectual family circle, and the ar
rival and departure of friend Or two,
to break the complete repose.
Delightful my father thought it, in
contrast with the busy turmoil he had
left; and one day he said to his host:
"Pve been thinking that if ever met a
man who had nothing to desire, you
must be he. You have health, caltiva
ton, charming family. You have gath
cred round you every comfort wealth can
give, the choicest of all that nature and
art can supply. Are you not completely
happv?"
Never, my father said TO me, would he
forget the sad, unexpected reply: "Happyl
All, Mr. Owen, | committed one fatal
error in my youth, and dearly have I
paid for it! started in life without an
object, almost without an ambition. My
temperament disposed me to ease, and l
INDUCED it. l said to myself, I have all
that see others contending for; why
should l struggle?' / knew not the curse
that lights on those who have never to
struggle for anything. ] ought to have
literary, scientific, artistic, political, no
matter what, so there was something to
labor for and to overcome. Then might
have been happy"
My father suggested that hewas scarce
ly past the prime of life, and that in
hundred ways he might still benefit
others, while occupying himself. Come
and spend month or two with me at
Braxfeld," he added. "You have larg-
er share in the Lanark mills than any of
my partners. See for yourself what has
been done for the work-people there and
for their children; and give me the bene-
fit of your suggestions and your aid"
cit is too late,' was the reply ''The
power is gone. Habits are become
chains. You can work and do good; but
for me-in all the profitless years gone by
l seek vainly for something to remember
with pride, or even to dwell on with sat
isfaction. have thrown away life. l
remaining to me worth living for
time, did this strange martyr to leisure
visit the establishment in which he had
invested hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.-A.gantic Monthly.
A GENTLEMAN in Washington, whose
coal bills during the present winter have
been unnprecedently high, while his Their
mometer at the same time kept prov.,kingly
low came to the conclusion a short time
since that there must be leak some
where. So he instituted an investiga-
ton, and discovered, greatly to his
chsgrin, that his next door neighbor, VINO
WAS of an economical turn of mind, had
"tapped" his furnace through the cellar
walls, and having attached his own pIpes
thereto, by the aid of an ingeniously con-
structed valve, was enabled to lrxuriate
in midsummer heat, while mis- poor
neighbor was literally cleft out in the
] cold"