Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1877-03-07
Getting and Losing Fortunes.

IneSe words describe our COM
mon nature as men. Restlessness
spurs us to-day and tempts US to-
morrow.
An old friend, past seventy years
of age, met me at bookstore.
Greetings and inquiries over, he
fell to talking of his plans. He
was a man of large wealth, and re-
tired from business many years
ago. But the restless mood was
upon him. He told me that he
was thinking of investing a large
sum of money in starting an in
surance company, of which he was
to be president. He finished his
little speech and gave me opportu-
nifty TO reply.
"What evil genius" said I, ''has
beguiled you to entertain such an
idea! a! Yod do not need money.
What can pay you for the vexa-'
tion of such an experiment ?"
His common sense came to his
rescue in an instant, and he replied:
81 thank you most sincerely; 1
know you are right"
He did not put his money in;
and when everything went by the
board he was not q wretched and
ruined man.
Turning from this iefinterview,
| went on recalling instances in my
knowledge of men who came to
ruin because they could not let
well enough alone. One had re-
tired from business, but his friends
cajoled him into coal mine enter
prise. 1t seemed a nice thing to
receive five or ten thousand dollars
year for holding a nominal office;
while large dividends should add to
his already ample estate. His in
vestment all went down the coal
shaft.
Another man, who had all that
heart could wish for himself and a
charming family, must needs yield
d
to temptation from the gold mine.
His money went in. The gold did
not come ont. More money went
in search of earlier investments.
More and more were called for,
until his last dollar sank out of
sight.
Our current history is full of
these cases. The disease is not
greed of gain. These men were
of the best. They did not banker
inordinately for riches. They were
simply trying to escape the ennui
of condition of complete financial
success. They must be doing
something. To sit still was intol-
erable, although to do just that,
financially, was safety and happi-
ness. AS l write, case after case
comes to mind, of men greatly fa-
vored in fortune who had no pow
er to hold themselves in their good
estate. The record of these in
stances would fill newspaper.
And not a few have wound up in
tragedies which for a moment shook
society.
Here comes in the conviction of
our defective culture. Men must
be educated to bear the still weight
of accumulated fortune. What
next! is the question which re-
peats itself to us, and screams its
problem in our ears if we do not
give response. What next : is the
hardest of questions to a man who
has come up to the spot which for
fifty years has been his goal. In
all probability there is no answer
possible which will meet his case
1t is too late now.
Lord Houghton said at dinner
lately what intellectual culture is
necessary to complete the character
of statesman. Might he not have
said it is needful to the character
of gentlemanG Yea, more, is it
possible to guard our nature from
the restlessness which so often
brings risk and ruin, without o
culture still higheri AS to retir-
ing to personal enjoyment as an
end, God and nature forbid it.
But he has set mp some barriers, at
least against the danger we are de-
scribing, who has been educated
to love books and the society of
bookish people, and still more to
love the calls and claims Of char
ity.
There are broad acres inside of
every man which are generally neg
lected in the crowd OF business af-
fairs. But these acres, ploughed,
planted and harvestad vield tba