The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1884-05-23
The Giutt0My of Wealth.

off man has hundred thousand dollars"
says William H. Vanderbilt, she can be just
as happy as if he were rich"
To tho average individual this sounds like
satire, but doubtless Mr.. Vanderbilt spoke in
sober earnest Thirty years ags ne was a
wealthy man who had a hundred thousand
dollars. In some localities the amount means
wealth today; but not here, nor in any large
city, nor in halt the smaller cities. The de-
sire to accumulate enough to secure comfort
and a reasonable amount of luxury has ceased
to be rational. The man who is comfortably
rich is quite as dissatisfied as the man who is
poor. He must have more, and when he gets
it he must have still more. A million is a
comparatively small sum; but if he gets ten
millions he must have hundred millions. In
order to reach that amount he becomes a
that he may be prince among the moneyed
princes. He wears out his life. He gives up
all thought and all effort to grand schemes.
He takes the money of his friends, the funds
of others intrusted to his care, the private
property of his wife and her relatives, to swell
the capital necessary to the grand T. suit He
is dishonest He deceives. He lies outright.
He uses any and every means to get more. and
still more. His ventures are rash, and in nine
out of ten cases the end is failure, utter and
absolute, f'r not only himself but for the
thousands who have given him their conf
dcnce.
This is avarcre. 1t is rapacity. 1t is SOUL
lessness. Your miser starves himself and does
no harm to Others. Your banker who gam
bles in great schemes, dresses and lives like
gentleman-like a great mlny gentlemen put
together, and all of them very rich-and when
he falls he drags down with him thousands of
well-to-do individuals, and along with them
the business and other legitimate interests
which give employment to thousands of la
boring men and women. Everybody holds
the miser in contempt, but all admire the
prince of the great scheme. The latter has
stables crowded with horses which he never
Sees His different country and city estab-
lishments are maintained at cost of thous-
ands of dollars week. His family select
their attire from a home storehouse as large
as an average dry goods establishment. His
pleasures are paid for in diamonds and his
path is strewn with gold. When the master
dies nobody is injured and his grave is soon
forgotten; but when the prince fails there is
wailng over a wide space of territory, for his
extravaganza and fall have taken the bread
out Of many children's mouths.
1t is best, and perhaps proper enough, that
the law must not say to any man "You have
enough you'must be content with that; you
must not only live but let live: you must curb
your rapacity and permit others to have their
fair share of comfort and luxury" What,
however, shall be done to check the passion
for great and unearncd wealth which has
taken possession of SO many men who are
otherwise worthy of respect? This passion
has uprooted many of the old systems of bust
ness. 1t has destroyed safety and put public
private confidence on the rack. 1t threatens
breaking up which will do incalculable dam
age. Most certainly there can not be many
more cases of wholesale scoundrelism on the
part Of men in positions of trust without ere
ating panic whose melancholy effects may
run through several years The gentleman
miser must be checked. The avarice which
insists upon millions for private use must be
stopped. Lorenzo Dow told of an avaricious
farmer who. given the whole world, wept be-
cause he had not patch outside to plant po-
tatoes in. Had the farmer been located in
Wall street, or a, the head of a bank. nobody
today would find anything extravagant in the
/ character.
When shall there be a return TO the old and
safe methodist When, rather, shall the man
who is paid to take care of the money Of
Others cease TO become crazed through avar-
ice, through lust for Legitimate power, through