The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-05-02
The Advantages OF Poverty.

ITuCttCUt IufUtct.
The Advantages Of Poverty.
They are not like the snakes of Ireland.
There are some, and they are important.
One consists in freedom from the worry of
the rich. The poor man has his own
worries, but we are not called upon-to
consider them Just now. We are looking
at the other side of the shield. Esop
long ago remarked that the traveller
whose pocket was empty could whistle in
the face of the robber. 1t matters not
what shape the robber assumes. he
may come in the form Of fire or food, of
panic or pestilence. Whatever his shape,
in so Far as he threatens, only property,
he brings no alarm to the poor man.
Such man does not jump from his bed
and sweet sleep at night to consult his
fire-alarm card to see if his property is in
danger. The ice in the winter and floods
in the spring time presage no disaster to
him. Men may fail daily, but they owe
him nothing, nor is his name on their
notes. Practically, for the time being,
he stands aloof and apart from the busi-
ness world. It is quite true that the
worlds distresses may come in time to
have an important influence on him:
But at no time does he read the list of
failures with the personal anxiety that
man in active business feels. He is not
in the midst of a storm which may strike
his ship, and be has not to keep his sails
closely reefed or to spread them that ne
may escape from dangerous shoals. The
wealthy man worries about his idle capi-
tai. He can find no employment for the
safe investment of his money. Only q
man who has grown accustomed to the
sight of money laboring for him day and
night, piling up interest in an untirlng
process, can appreciate the dismay with
which one sees that which has been
working quit work. The poor man has
no money, and he is not troubled by
losses of time and losses of interest.
The man of capital has to protect accu-
mutations; the man without has only to
look out for his daily needs. The capi-
talist, in anxious times, has everything
to lose, and at the same time wants to
gain little. The man without money
can sustain no losses and what ne hopes
to gain is small as compared with what
the capitalist looks for. The capitalist
may be the servant of his money. Ser.
vice is we'll. lch dien was the motto OF
one of the proudest of Princes. BuSto
be a servant of money is one thing, and
a servant with money another. He who
has no property runs no risk of confusing
the distinction. 1t has been the fall Of
men who have been wealthy that has
startled people many a time within the
last five years. Men whose repute has
been GOOD, who have had the esteem of
the community, have tried to save some
thing from the outhowing tide of misfor-
tune, and they have lost their honor and
their good names in the effort. 1t Is a
great temptation that is set before q man
to keep up by unjust means and dishon-
orable methods the prestige of his name
and his social position. 1t is tempta-
ton the poor man can never feel as it IS
felt by the man of large property. By
as much as their place was higher, by so
much was their fall greater.
The moneyless man runs little danger
of the peculiar temptations that beset
the rich. Goldsmith coupled with the
accumulation of wealth suggestion OF
the decay of men, and prophecy of a
land ito fastening ills prey" Mar
lowe declared excess of wealth "a cause
of contentious" and old John Haywood
said:
"Tho loss of wealth is loss of dirt.
AS sages in ell times assert,
The happy mans man without shirt." ."
And Gray, in the "Ode on Pleasure" "
spoke of him who is
erich from the very want of wealth"
There are dissipations open to the
wealthy man which never tempt the
poor man, because the poor man is never
thrown in their way. 1t is unnecessary
to specify. What, perhaps, is quite as a.
important, the poor mans children will
not have to encounter them. They are
bred, from the nature of things, to work.
The pursuit of wealth, whatever is to be
said of what follows upon gaining wealth,
has to be marked by economy, self-denial
and struggles. The incentives are before
the poor mans children, not before those
that are the children of rich men. Youth
is the time for the formation of habits,
and the habits of poor children are those
of laborious industry, of unremitting ap'
plication, and continuous toll.
The poor man need entertain no feal
that after his death the doors of the FAM
lily closet will be thrown open by eager
heirs and the choice collection of family
skeletons exposed to view. There will
be no children to exhibit the weaknesses
bodily and mental, of the father. There
will be no heirs at law to tell the world
of gossipers what the gossipers should
never know. Misdc nortuis nisi bonum
is not rule that those observe who think
they have been robbed of what should
have come to them. 1t is maxim the
world is more ready to see kept sacred
than disappointed heirs.
We doubt if these and other considera.
tions that will occur to the thoughtful
reader will have the effect of making him
cease in his pursuit of riches. We fee
at liberty to say that their force is not &c
great as to induce any friend to whom
they have been communicated to either
reduce himself to poor mans estate, OF
stop trying to be rich man. One who
breaches this kind of philosophy is ap