The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-05-04

rivers and streams; but the greatesl height
is only $500 feet, and largest rivers are
but very moderate width and depth The
only serious difficulties, as we have said
lie at the Chinese frontier, and they arc
inferior to those overcome in the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada by the
American engineers. Russia has raised
in fifteen years more than 81 .000, ,O00, 900
with which to construct $4,000 miles of
railroad, and can easily fad $500, 900, 900
or $4O0, 900. 900 to construct line of such
value to all the civilized world d-,Scsentitic
american.
MOney-Gettlng as an Object of Life.
THE recent sudden death of A. T.
Stewart, one of New York's merchant
princes, right on the eve of a contemplated
civic pageant, and after business career
which for 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 a lite. As the information passed
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 al such a career? Has such
a life no lesson beyond its own powerless-
ness to prevent the approach and ravages
of death? If so, then money getting as an
object of life is far from being so desirable
as il has been usually considered to be.
There must be some fatal defect in 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
under estimated, must not be passed over
as entirely Insignificant or worthless,
because it contains, after all possible
| discOunting, some really valuable ele
ments and features. Such life is in
! tinitely superior to that of the lazy
vagabond or the idle lounger; su
| perior to that of the fashionable
drone or scheming speculator. Mr.. Stew.
art began his career in business as a poor,
humble boy; he employed none other than
honorable and legitimate methods he never
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 a 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 |
fhdGiSStfTes i and aGcumuIatons OF The Ma
ton as a whole; its value upon the Ma
tional reputation abroad, as well as upon
the National prosperity at home In all
these respects life career like that OF n.
r. Stewart, just closed, is bright ana
shining light in the Temple of Human
Achievement, a pleasant and suggestive
picture hung up in the galleries Of Ma
tional memory.
But, on the other band, such lifc-work
must not be ver-estimated, because, with
all its brlliancy of success and its I'M
mensely profitable results, here are some
features and elements connected with 1t
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 It's
best aspects, is nothing more than sl-
premely selfish life. Scli-aggrandizemcn'
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 of0he golden god. When
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
a.ly subtracted from the sum total Of the
worlds capital stock in higher good, and
the vacuum created by such loss is filled
! with res0unding cries OF sincere lamenta-
ton and grief. But let 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 lite-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-
BILE. something more needed, while a
higher than human authority hath con
firmed this Judgment by declaring that
"a mans life consisteth not in the abun-
dance of the things which he possesseth." !"
MIR Stewards life, rich and fruitful as
it was in 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. 1t was successful
in one respect, and remarkably so, but in
the rounded circle of character there are
entirely wanting in his career the better
possibilities of human life.-Chicago Jour
nat.
A Massachusetts country newspaper
tells the following amusing incident of /
: Boston topper: Going into bar-room lit
, called for something to drink, but wa
told that no liquor was sold, but tina
he might have a glass if he would buy I
cracker, the price of which was twelv'
. cents. Every WE'LL" said the Yankee
"hand down the decanter." This wa
accordingly done, and a strong draugh
,, taken, when, as he was about de
parting, the landlord, handing him bo:
, of crackers, asked if he didn't want one