Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-04-11
THE ART OF SPENDING MONEY.

Uncle Esek," in The Century, re-
marks: There are plenty of people
who know how 10 make money, and
how to waste it. but few who know
how to spend it" The more any one
rejects on this the more he wia>be con-
vinced of the wisdom Of the 81 ing.
1t must lie confessed that the
opinion Of the world is lust
the contrary. The belief of most
men might be summed up in the
saying: "Any fool can spend money.
but it takes a shrewd man to make il. ="
1t is not often that the general opinion
of men about matters of every day life
Is wrong, yet IN this case we believe that
1t is certainly wrong. fool can waste
money, he can squander it in diss pa
ton or let it slip away from h m
through sheer incompetence TO hold it.
but he can not spend it wisely. Ii
might be maintained that spending a
fortune s harder than getting it, and
the thesis would have many plausible
arguments to sustain it; but at any rate
this is true. The talent for money-get-
ting and that for money-spend.ng are
separate gifts, not often un ted in the
same person.
Few of the great millionaires have
been successful in spending the fortune
they have acquired. The name of Pea
oody will occur at once as an instan, e
oT man who succee led in so spending
his great fortune as to do a vast amo mt
ot good with it--good of kind that is
continually multiply ing itself and add
ing new contributions of its own to the
sum of the worlds happiness. But
what other name shall we place along
side of his? What work of practical
beneficence is Hssociated with the names
OF Stewart, Vanderbilt, Gould. Sage,
Field. and the rest? In Europe the case
Montefiore is cherished everywhere as
that of great bcnefactor O. his own
race, if not of humanity at large; but
with what great work of benehcence,
even for their own race, has the name
OF Rothschilds been connected?
We have mentioned the name of
Stewart among the rich men of this
country whose name is come ted with
no great work tor his fellows. But he
al least is entitled to this honor, that b
desired to do something for them, and
really made the eff, IT. lie began n
palatial home for working women. but
so badly was the whole thing planned,
and 50 inefiiciently WAS the idea carried
out by his executors, that it was a cost.
failure. His name greatly strengthens
our thesis that the talent for spending
money is quite distinct from the talent
for getting money. The only one of the
great millionaires of New-York who
has ever shown any disposition toward
a large charitable enterprise failed be-
cause he had not studied the conditions
of successful money-spending as he had
studied those of money-gettiny.
The talen. for money-spending is one
that may be cultivated 1t is the duty
of Christian man to cultivate it, 1t is
noteworthy that the New Testament has
little to say about the gett ng of money.
1t is apparently taken for granted that
men will look out for the means of get
ting money without any in JUNCTION to do
do so, and that what they need is in
struction in the art and true principle of
using the money they acquire. In tn we
have another proof of the adaptedness
of the Scriptures to human needs. The
men of New-Yo rk, and of every other
place in like manner, are all busy abou
plans for &C uiring money; Jew of them
ever stop to think what they shall do
with it when they have graft ed
their highest amb ton in money
getting. AS a result, when they
become rich they do not even
know how to use their money for
their own pleasure. and are obliged in
order to save themselves from unen
durable emnui to go on piling up the I
millions when the possession of great
wealth has ceased TO be pleasure in
itself to them. They are even more
ignorant of how to their money for
the gooc of their fellows. nor do their
actions give us any warrant to suppose
that the desire so II use il has ever
entered their minds. If men devoted
half the thought and SIX II to the wise
spending OF their fortunes that they
do to their &C uircmeDt, we should not
see great charitable and educationa
pro ects languis ing for lack of the
means to carry them forward. nor would
the few enterprises undertaken by rich
men so often miscarry and prove utter
failures.
The most generous givers TO every
OBJ ect that appeals with force to .
Ct ristian mans heart are the men w {
began to consider, when they had little
to give, how to give that little 80 that i
would accomplish the most, and who
trained in such school. when the had
large sums at their disposal had nc
doubt where to put them in order to
make them a cont nuous power fol
good. The art of spending none,
wisely is not to be learned in dav. mol
is fortune TO be disposed of without
an amount of care and thought com
parable to that consumed in the making