The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-28
UNEARNED FORTUNES.

One of the most familiar dreams of those
who indulge in day-dreaming is that if some
time their long-awaited ship from over the
sea should at last come in, bringing them
golden fortune, they would be the .happiest
of the happy. And when they read now and
again of some lucky laborers falling heirs to
great estates usually far greater in report
than In possession), they vaguely wonder if
there is not a lost fortune somewhere in the
wide world seeking for them if they could
only find it. And if there was, and one
should tell them they would be the better
not to find it, it might seem harsh thing to
say. Yet if not true in their specific case
the saying would be true in many, if not in
most of such cases.
An Eastern journal tells of an honest
shoemaker who made a comfortable living
for himself and family by working at his
trade. When the government began scatter
ingpension money with so generous hand
the shoemaker was overjoyed to find him
self entitled to $1,000 of arrears, which
seemed to him a fortune. Intoxicated by
his sudden accession of wealth, he bought
his wife diamond earrings, his daughter a
piano. and with the residue set
himself up as shoe-merChant.
But the honest shoemaker had
undertaken too much and after years *
perience the sheriff sold him out, with debts
enough to follow him for the rest of his life.
We are not told what became of him in the
end, but it is easy enough to see that this man
would have been better off if his pension
money had never been drawn from the vaults
of the government.
Nor is this an exceptional case. A few
years ago there lived in this city family in
moderate but comfortable circumstances, the
husband earning a fair salary as salesman ia
wholesale store. Unexpectedly the man
inherited considerable fortune in the old
world, which he received in money, large
pile to one who had been used to counting
only what his own hands had earned. His
ship, golden-freighted, did, in fact, suddenly
ride into the harbor. That there was joy in
that household may we'll be imagined. Now
had come in reality that which had so long
been vaguely dreamed Of The modest house
on a retired street was soon exchanged for
one in a more pretentious neighborhood of
commodious quarters and with all the latest
new home was furnished with lavish
elegance from kitchen to attic; expen-
sive dresses for wife and daughters pro-
cured a fine horse and carriage purchased;
! in short, the whole family establishment
placed upon footing suitable to the changed
condition of the husbands resources. Mean
time his position as salesman was given up,
and he appeared to find difficulty in settling
down to any steady pursuit.
Now, this man did not intend to do his
family any injury. On the contrary, he
ton and give them the good things of life as
his increased means enabled him to do. Yet
it is not hard to predict an unhappy out
come for all this well-intended magnificence.
The fortune will be spent and the fine estab-
lishment will collapse as suddenly at it ex-
banded. The last estate of that house will
be worse than the first, as there is no poverty
so keen as that which follows in the wake of
broken fortunes. While there is youth and
heart and hope, and gradual betterment of
conditions, narrow circumstances may be
nj oh f,,l h,rf III
that was hoped for in the future lies ruined
retrospect in the past, it is too often felt that
life is no longer worth living.
Certainly it is true that wealth suddenly
acquired does not always bring disaster.
There are cool, levelheaded people who are
able to make it the steppng-stone to perma-
nent ana increasing prosperity. But these
are the exceptions; the rule is the other way.
Few are able to say that the money which
came to them unearned was the same as that
which the toll of their own head or hands
wrung from grudging world. The dollar
which the father gives his boy seems hut
small affair. Let the boy earn one by a long
days work. and it will have acquired new
significance He will deliberate good while
before he spends it, and the article which it
eventually buys will possess a greater value
for him. The difficulty with people who
have fortunes thrust upon them is that they
are unable to form a correct idea of the linn
itations as well as of the extent of their new
possession. To a man that has never earned
more than thousand dollars year, ten or
twenty thousand dollars poured into his lap