The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-28
THE MEANNEss OF AvARIOE.

II
1t is saying attributed to Bulwer that
all meann ess there is defect Of intellect, I
we'll as OF heart, and that money never can
well managed if sought solely through th
: greed of money for its own sake.
I Those who begin to accumulate money o
property are usually, at first, induced b
motives of prudence. They look to tn
future, and instead OF using and consumin,
what they earn day by day they prefer to pre-
; pare q store for future supply as provision
J against change, accident or misfortune The!
at first love property, not for its own sake
but because every dollar or dollars worth il
an additional security against discomfort and
distress.
Thus far there is nothing to blame in this
line Of conduct. The forecast of poDviding 70,
future wants is taught even by animal
instincts and commended in the precepts
OF the wise by these animal examples. The
disposition to save and accumulate with a
view to the future, if not inseparable from
| the character Of civilized men, is at least q
distinguishing mark between the civilized and
savage races. Without this capacity and habit
of anticipating the future, human progress
would come to a stop. Without it our race
would relapse to barbarism through a rapid
succession of distresses. The culture of the
fields would cease, and men would
forget how to make and how use
machinery. The sound Of the engine would
be heard no more. Huts would take the
place of comfortable dwellings,. All learning
would be forgotten, leaving no other distinc-
ton between one savage and another than
what might be given by strength, agility,
skill, boldness and sagacity in the chase or in |
battle. It is the nature Of the civilized man
to accumulate in obedience to cultivated in
stinct of self-preservaton. Whether this in |
stinct shows itself in adding acre to acre, or
house to house, or bond to bond, or ship to
ship, the spirit, the purpose, the disposition
md the results are the same.
1t is and has long been a question where
his instinct ceases to be honest and from ex-
less becomes vice, or where the want of it
becomes equally vice. Improvidence is a
ice entailing evils which are immediate and
'alpable, and ten ding towards the disintegra-
ion of society, and its opposite, avarice, is
ice more loathed but scarcely more damag-
ng. I
On this one point the differences among
ivilized men will always be as infinite as are !
be varieties of character. No two. men will
ut the same estimate on money and
roperty, nor love them in the same way
or esteem them for the same cause nor
eek them in precisely the same spirit
umberless very mean men scrape to-
ether huge piles of wealth which they
lnnot appreciate for lack Of capacity, while
very respectable number of men of the
gher grades of intellect and culture build
? fortunes and find pleasure in utilizing
lem as they 60. A mean man is meanly
'aricious, but man of better spirit may !.
ambitious to accumulate and yet forget
'ne OF his duties to society. Some love
oney and hoard it; soma love to make
oney IN erely to crafty spirit of enterprise. :
here is the widest difference between the
ere miser, who is merely despicable, and Q
enterprising operator who developes re- :,
nrces, guides labor, systematizes produc- :. :,
n, and opens new fields of industry while =
ding to the public wealth.
Il is an easy thing to denounce in round = =
rases all who manifest the conservative =,
rit in gathering property, but even the A.,
ia of the philosophic Bulwer must be taken >
h due allowance. At this era. in every law
7erned land, men in great numbers Of the 80
her order of capacity are engaged in pur- "
is whose direct object is the accumulation
wealth. They are not, therefore, and of :,
'essity, mean and reprehensible. They :,
y love money, but they love it as the mari -
loves his ship, the farmer his fields and -
DIS, the mechanic his tools, the scholar his ~,
ks, or the soldier his arms, as the means w,
medium Of reaching what is intrinsically !"
irable. 8"
loney is labor crystalized, made exchange ~
}, portable and convertible. He who gets ,
ney without the will to give an equivalent, 49,
Tres to get the benefit of the hard work of r. M.
sr men without giving just wages. If his -
science is enlightened. his dishonest ava ~
becomes mean and blameable The dis
ton can not be drawn by institutions and WI =
), wherefore much must be left to the ~.
se OF right and wrong. which differs by an 49,
aite variety Of shades. according to edu- 49,
On and surroundings. The truly honor ~
man, whether poor or wealthy, will never r r.
It loss to know what is and what is not
own. -
- mig
be New Orleans Republican of yesterday, som
Is local column, published statement cent
gard to the Parish Prison wb;.b 30 ~ mos
hesitate to pronounce gross libel upon nav
if Pagan and the management of the sam
IN. The article exhibits shameful dis who
ID Of what is due to public off cial, and wisd