Daily globe., 1881-01-30
BETWEEN OURSELVES.


money, and now have nothing but money"
said Betsey Patterson Bonaparte ruefully in
her old age.
No woman ever spoke and wrote such abso-
lute, consistent and singular worldliness from
youth to eld as this repudiated wife and am
bilious mother. Her selfishness and cool cal
culation-her outspokenness of sordid intent,
and all else of the kind which goes without
saying, make her letters the most extraordinary
ever printed.
And hence this saying of hers has a mourn
ful meaning beyond what reaches the ear
for it took her nearly a century to
get at it-and twas too late to make any
difference. 49,"
But the text is all the more pregnant and
pathetic, because from it we infer that without
love and esteem we are beggars. The veriest
paupers are frequently persons whose finances
are up in the thousands. Whatever beauty
and bloom life held at the outset have been
absorbed in amassing money. Early and late
enthusiasm and effort never know any other
impulse. If the heart has other desires they
are supposed to keep until the supreme fruition
of the one aim-plenty of money. And then?
Well, then the successful individual who has
had stifed yearnings of intellectual and social
development tumbles into the worst bank
ruptcy imaginable, because he has no mental
assets to turn over to his erewhile eager facul-
ties They have been so long in cash or real
estate that they cannot be used over again in
any extraneous channel. Enthusiasm and en-
joyment are overlaid with an apathetic con-
sciousness that securities are good and divi-
dends sure.
A very comfortable apathy many win think.
'Tis'nt given to many to feel this pleasant Ian
guor of pecuniary ease as to securities and
dividends.
of the world is achieved in their deprivation,
and the best gifts of humanity flourish
in it. Therefore it would seem that the
majorities are poor, for the benefit Of
the human family, that their minds in
controlling forces may be clear to hold that
the worlds superlatiye riches are not in
money, nor bonds, mol real estate, but in that
mental and spiritual wealth, which is ours be-
yond the grave.
Many rich man dies lonely, isolated and
melancholy-aye takes his own life in many
cases-because he finds that he is veritable
pauper in matters whereof he made little or nc
account at the right time.
To be merely quoted as "worth SO much
when all is done. To die with just the import
of leaving sums to people whose pockets are
already too full, who will receive the hoard
without thought of its double value, as the
cost OF what was precious in the giver's life,
representing enthusiasm, eagerness and in.
telligence, all staked for it.
Our pity is largely lavish, because persons
who reget the lack of their best Development,
while solely bent on making money-are rather
scarce. The herd enjoys the display which
can be made with their thousands, and mum.
bers never give up the acquisition of money
and the effort and exhibition of its results &c
hand in hand.
Walking in Third street one morning with a
foe gentleman in a threadbare coat, signal
to him The rich mans carriage was finer
than any circus-and the sight of it cost moth
ing. "Fancy," said he, "the mind machinery
which is always down to the middle In bar
rel and never notes anything but its top and
bottom. 1t may be disloyalty to the great
American sentiment-but scorn his idea of
success. No doubt, he is an impressive au-
thority on it, and never loses an opportunity
of telling struggling intellect-how he man
aged, and what he did until he reached the
profitable introspection just Witnessed
Of course, there must be persons to do the
work which this rich man did con Gnsore, but
they are hardly to be mentioned in any cate
CORY of eminent successfully perhaps as
they pick competence out of the debris. To
suppose any marked regret comes
to them over fine vanished oppor-
tunites, is absurd, although now
and then, there may be vague misgivings that
trife more learnin' of the book sort would
be an advantageous adjunct to their posses
sions.
life work. It's reward has given them su-
perlative excellence of creature comforts, and
surely tits impertinent to ask anything more
of fate.
Money of itself can do little else Only the
mind can directl to its fullest return. Board and
clothes are radically the same-the first being
in the quality compassed. In these respects
the prosperous middle class is as well fixed as
millionaires without tithe of their anxiety
over the surplus, not essential to comfort or
happiness.
If that surplus were used for amusement, or
any commendable impulse rather than form
the sordid spur of accumulation just for its
own sake, the return would be satisfactory by
comparison. When Charles James Fox lost
100000 at cards, his friends not
being quite sure of his Temporal
ment in adapting himself to such ruinoue
reverse, followed him home after an interval
with considerable apprehension, and found
him placidly reading Thucydides.
Here was refreshing Indifference to filthy
lucre; contempt often shared alike by saint
and worldling, albeit the perception of the one
is a spiritual insight and of the other a
happy unconcen, or a bitter knowledge OF
it's inadequacy as substitute for affection,
for disinterested human appraisal, and
esteem.
There is a charming touch in one of Gustav