Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-07-28
NO. 10.
SOLID MEN.
The Limited Capacity of MilliOnaires for
Real Enjoyment-DiscomfO Of Wealth
Neatly Described.


such numbers from America and Aus
tralia say that one definite reason for
dreading them is their incapacity for
spending their fortunes in amusing
themselves. A man who has made
twenty millions sterling, say by vast
corners" in railway shares, finds that
unless he goes on making money or
is one of those fortunate persons who
can continuously devote himself to an
object, the eacess of which his for
tune transcends that of other rich
men, is of very little use to him. He
can, of course, get out of it all the
personal luxury, in the way of fine
houses and good eating, and purple
and fine linen generally, that he may
happen to wish for, but in those things
there is for him no special satisfac-
ton. Anybody with, say, f50,000 a
year, or other bread and butter for
tunes of that kind, can buy all the
personal luxuries he can enjoy, in
Guiding in some places social def
erence; and the mammoth millionaire
wants something more. He wants to
feel the value Of the difference be-
tween his resources and those of the
merely rich, to do or enjoy something
which they cannot attempt. Ell
ephantipe amusements may be anus
ing, but they are only elephantine,
and he is mammoth, wants larger
trees to crush through, bigger forests
to browse in, deeper swamp in which
to gambol and roll. In little planet
like ours this is not easy to obtain.
He desires, like the rest of us, to uti-
lie his special advantage, which is
the command of the modern form of
the wishing cap in a degree to which
no one else can pretend, and it is diff
fcult to wish for anything that no
body with a smaller cap can get. He
can travel very pleasantly; but so can
the ordinary wealthy man, money
beyond a certain amount adding
little either to the enjoyment or the
conveniences of travel. The present
writer was travelling once on the track
of an Empress. and was SO incon-
venienced by her wealth that he
watched to see what it gave her. It
was very little indeed, nothing com
pared with what she obtained from
her European rank. When crossing
the Alps she swept up for two days
in advance every available horse,
engaging at one point no less than
eighty; but she could only sit in one
place in one barouche, and moved, on
the whole, no quicker than other peo-
pie. The huge suite seemed to be
merely burden, choking up the
roads, calling forth tiresome crowds
and sometimes creating wearisome
delay. There was a physician, for in
stance, who actually fell i'll, to the loss
of eleven hours. The Empress upset
the travelling arrangements of great
line for three days by her require
ments in the way of special train
and extra precautions; but any one
to hire saloon carriage for herself,
and pay for pilot engine in front,
a matter of less than pound mile,
would have travelled with just as
much personal enjoyment. The EN-
press rank, no doubt, helped her
greatly in opening inaccessible cas-
ties, attracting experts as Ciceroni,
and securing her near Naples par
adise to live in which no money would
have purchased; but the command
of millions of itself produced no more
than thousands would have done.
AS to creating a grand place-the
idea which Edger Poe put into the
head of his imaginary millionaire
it is to be done, no doubt, with skill
and judgment; but when the colossal
once enters into an enterprise OF that
kind, it becomes unenjoyable. No
private man would be happier even
in his own thoughts for creating a
Versailles, and short of Versailles,
half million we'll laid out will do
all that is required. 10 found
family" in the English sense, is in
America or Australia impossible; and
a great estate gives comparative little
influence, and beyond certain limit
quite attainable by any rich man, no
particular pleasure. What is the use
Of owning square miles when nobody
will 'cap' to you or recognize your
greatness in any way that is not half
hostile? Of course, if the mammoth
millionaire is a collector, he can make
mammoth collections. but when once
you have acquired all the snuff boxes,
or jade bowls, or fine cats eyes to be
procured, thousand more specimens
adds very little to your qualification.
A collection loses its charms when
once it is magnifed into a museum.
Besides, all these things cost COM
paratively little. They can. any one
of them, be done to any reasonable
extent by a man with a hundred
thousand year; and we are talking
of the millionairs, to whom that in
come seems respectable poverty. The
true mammoth Cr9sus is forced to
accumulate by the difficulty Of get
ting rid of his money, and soon finds
that really to use it with a visible
result adequate to the power expend-
ed, there is no way except to in
crease his business operations. That
is the reason why, in America, he
continues his trade; and why his son,
with still greater wealth, will be
tempted to continue after him, and to
keep on rolling up the SNOWFALL till
smaller men declare, as they are
declaring now about the railway
kings, that it's becoming dangerous.
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