New-York tribune., 1884-01-25
THE MEN WHO BUILD, AND THE OTHER


About tbe most despicable creature to be
found on this footstool is he who finds his chief
iov in gloating over the downfall of men more
capable and more useful than himself. Ihere
has been lately IN exhibition of this side OF
human nature in Wall Street. The man who
dares aud does something, when he falls, Is sure
to have barking at his heels a pack of creatures
who never had the capacity or the courage to
undertake any bigger or better thing than the
transfer Of unearned money from others pock-
cts to their own.
The great railroads that now span the cond-
ncnt are the most marvellous and the most
bencfcent achievements of man within the
past twenty years Into these great works a
host of the strongest and bravest men of the
Nation have put their brains and their immense
energy, their resources, their time, and their
reputation, and not few of them their very
lives. Ames W as hunted to his death by Great
ures who never had 1.-THE of his integrity or
manhood Bushnell and many others left mill
ions behind and began life again at the bottom;
ex-MayOr Hone lost all and died in poverty
but why recount the listq The road from the
Mississippi to the Pacific was strewn in old
times with the bleaching bones of those who
had died by the way, and so 1t Is to this day.
But the wolves that gloated over the bones OF
the fallen, before iron ways were opened, were
less mean than the jackals who have howled on
the track of every railway builder for the past
twenty years.
The Northern Pacific has left behind two
great failures There will be less patriotism in
the hearts of Americans than we hope there Is
now, if ever the services of Jay Cooke during
the war are forgotten. But those very services
made some men hate him while he prOspered,
and lie about him when he fell. blr. Willard,
whose recent fall has made some persons as
happy as such natures can be, will be remem-
bered and hOnored for the work he has accom-
plished long after those who sought his ruin
have sunk into charitable oblivion. States
have been created, and millions Of happy homes
and prosperous farms in the near future, by the
courage and the energy, the financial ability
and the unfaltering endurance, which have
pushed the great railway to completion. 1t is
not an empty honor, nor one that will fade, to
have made habitatiOn and productive industry
possible over a fertile region of $50, 900 square
miles-three times the area of Great Britain
and Ireland.
Meanwhile, what have Mr.. Wizards success
full foes ever done to entitle them to grateful
memory? Perhaps some of them gambled in
gold during the civil war; if so, the
chances are that they reoiced whenever patri-
OTIS died by the thousand to save the flag Of the
country from dishonOr Or perhaps they spec
ulated in 1878; if so they doubtless thought IT.
blessing that terrible disaster had befallcn the in
dustry Of the Nation. 1t may be that they were in
themarketin July, 1881, and were enriched by
the assassin who filled the civilized world with
sorrow. Possibly they were happy when the
prolonged drOuth killed $500, 100000 worth
of products. But what one thing, for the benefit
of their country or their fellow men, have they
ever had the courage or the capacity to do 2
What country it would be, if all its citizens
yvnre such "a thespi