Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-05-04
MOney-Gett1ng as an Object of Life.

l.
| Stewart, one of New York's merchant
| princes, right on the eve of contemplated
civic pageant, and after business career
which tor brilliancy of success and profit
| able results has rarely been surpassed, in
evjtably leads one to stop and muse
awhile upon the enduring moral value of
such life. As the information passed
from lip to lip last Monday night, about
the only comment we heard was this
His money couldn't save him after all. Is
this all that can be said, or all which
naturally comes to the lips for expression
after looking at such a career? Has such
a life no lesson beyond its own powerless-
ness to prevent the approach and ravages
Oh death? Ii so, then money getting as an
object of life is far from being so.desirable
| as 1t has been usually considered to be.
There must be some fatal defect in a life
which leaves so slight an impress upon
the public mind
In estimating the value of such life
work, there are two extremes of thought to
| be avoided. First, such life must not be
underestimate, must not be passed over
as entirely insignificant or worthless,
| because it contains, after all possible
d1scounting, some really valuable ele-
ments and features. Such a life is in
finitely superior to that of the lazy
| vagabond or the idle lOunger; SUI
| periOr to that of the fashionable
| drone or scheming speculator Mr.. Stew
art began his career in business as poor,
humble boy; he employed none other than
honorable and legitimate methods henever
| failed or cheated his creditors out of sin
gle dollar. What he gained was the re-
suit solely of his industry and capacity,
his devotion and singleness of aim, his
zeal and energy in outstripping competi-
tors, his prudence and foresight in MAX
ing investments and purchases. What
ever may be said in regard to the use which
he made of his vast wealth, nothing, Ger
tainly, can be brought against the method
by which it was acquired.
There is also the value of such life as
an example to others just commencing a
like career, especially to young men filled
with an honorable ambition to emulate, if
not surpass, the virtues of predecessors in
the same line OF work; its value upon the
| Industries and accumulations of the Ma
ton as a whole; its value upon the Ma
tional reputation abroad, as we'll as upon
the National prosperity at home. In all
these respects a life career like that of A.
L. Stewart, just closed, is bright and
shining light in the Temple of Human
Achievement, pleasant and suggestive
| picture hung up in the galleries of Ma
tional memory.
But, on the other hand, such a life-work
must not be over estimated, because, with
all its brilliancy of success and its i'm
mensely profitable results, here are some
features and elements connected with it
| not worthy Of universal imitation. 1t can
! safely be affirmed that the Judgment of
mankind has long ago settled itself upon
the basis Of not long remembering or
highly applauding the career of any one
who makes his life-object the acquisition
of mere material gain. Such life, in its
best aspects, is nothing more than a SUI
| premely selfish life. lf-aggrandizement
is its highest aim and end. The moral
and intellectual welfare succumbs to the
interests and necessities of gain and
greed. All the higher and nobler ele-
ments of manhood are sacrificed before
the altar of the golden god. When a
scholar or statesman dies, even though
he be poor in material resources, the land
and the world mourn over the departure
from its activities of so much available
mental and moral power. There is so
much weight and power of character, so
much ability, SO much moral worth, liter
ally subtracted from the sum total Of the
worlds capital stock in higher good, and
the vacuum created by such loss is filled
with resOunding cries of sincere lamenta-
ton and grief. But let a man of mere
physical wealth die, and about the only
source of public anxiety is in respect to
the disposition of his property The man
himself is passed by and speedily forgot
ten when once underground, and whatever
interest attaches to his life-work has refer
ence to the amount in dollars and cents
which it had gathered together.
No man, therefore, can devote himself
exclusively to the acquisition and hoard
ing OF property, without sinking himself,
by so doing, in the estimation of God.
Valuable as money is, much as the world
needs it, it instinctively declares by its
judgments Upon those who give them
selves up, soul and body, to its accumula-
ton, that there is something more valua-
bic, something more needed, while a
higher than human authority hath con-
firmed this judgment by declaring that
" a mans life consistent not in the album
dance Of the things which he possesseth.' y
Mr. Stewards life, rich and fruitful as
1t was ii heroic perseverance, in concen-
tration Of energy, in wise adaptation of
means to ends, yet in its lonely and desc
late domestic isolation, its supreme self
ishness, its practical forgetfulness Of all
higher good, can hardly be called true
and complete success. It was successful
II one respect, and remarkably so, but in