The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-07-11
What is Money Worth ?
Philadelphia Led0er.

| Looking at life from one direction,
we see in it vast system of exchange.
We are continually buying and selling,
parting with some things to gain others,
yielding up what we value less for what
we value more. This is by no means
confined to the barterings of commerce
in material things. The exchanges
made of things that are handled form
only one division of the great COM
merce of life. Men are daily selling
labor and time, comfort and health,
wit and knowledge, sometimes even
truth and honor, and receiving in re-
turn something that we suppose to be
better.
In the transfer sof material things,
money has come to be the most conve-
nient medium. In all the complex sys-
TENS of commercial life it plays most
important part, and forwards transac-
tions that would otherwise be impossi-
BILE. In utilizing the labor, the skill
and the talents of mankind, and bring
ing producer and consumer into rela-
tions of mutual benefit, it is in aluable;
and thus, as means to numerous de-
sirable ends, it is justly priced and
sought for. In proportion, however,
to the great value of money as an fnSt,z-
ment, is its utter uselessness as an end
in itself. If it should lie in heaps on a
desert island, the famished traveller,
cast upon the shore, would pass it by
unheeded in his eager search for root
or cluster of wild berries Its only
worth to any one is what it will enable
him to procure.
This truth is SO frequently lost sight
of that money comes largely to be re-
garded not only as an end, but as the
one end most desirable and most ear
nestly sought after. Seeing that it
can do so much people imagine that it
can do all, and SO are willing to barter
everything else for it. Instead of re-
garding money as step by which to
reach something really valuable, they
regard other things as steps by which
to reach money, and estimate them ac
cordingly. What ought to be served
BY it they degrade into servants to it.
The common expression, time is
money savors of this fallacy. 1t is
used to heighten a sense of the value of
time, as if its chief and best use was to
earn money, and herein lay the only
reason for not wasting it. Those who
thus reason, buy gold often at fearful
price. They give for it their whole
time, which is their life, and sacrifice
the many other uses to which it may be
put. But no re-exchange is possible.
All their wealth cannot purchase sim
gle wasted opportunity. Surely time
is much more than money, and may
well claim respect and value of its
own, quite apart from the dollars and
cents it can command
Education is another thing which is
often valued, not for itself, but merely
as a stepping stone to wealth. We
give it to the young and they take it,
not SO much that they may become,
through it, better, nobler, happier and
more useful men and women, as that
they may gain the power of rising from
lower to higher station, from pow
erty to mediocrity, or from mediocrity
to wealth. Thus the education that
only fits them to adorn humble posi-
ton happily and contentedly, instead
of cultivating ambitious longings; that
cherishes health and strength of body,
and fills the mind with resources for
its own activity and power for its own
development, without any direct refer
ence to amasSing fortune, is too often
neglected for narrower and shallower
instruction. Is not the mind more
than the purse? Shall we sell the one
to fill the other? or shall we not rather
spend freely of our gold to build up
the intellect, to strengthen the reason,
to cultivate the taste, to fortify the
principles?
There are many other things too
valuable in themselves to barter for
money, but which money will be hon
ored by subserving. Health is one of
them. 1t may be sacrificed at the
shrine of gold, but the wealth thus pur-
chased corrodes in the hand of him
who holds il. Love may be cast aside
and killed by neglect in the hot chase
for fortune, but no riches, however
great, can buy it back again. Honor,
truth and principle may be sold for
money, but the wealth of the Indies
cannot restore them. Let us then
learn wisdom in all our exchanges. We
regret our folly when we have been in
duced to pay more for some article
than it is worth, and so have made
what we call a poor bargain, but, no
bargain can be so poor as that which
men voluntarily make when they part
with their most choice and priceless
possessions, without stint, for hand
full of gold.
Of course we must buy money for
our needs, and pay fair price for it;
but, as in other purchases, so in this,
let our best judgement decide what it
is worth to us, how much we require,
and what we can honorably afford to
give for it. Some of our time, our
labor, our strength, our talents may
thus be wisely expended, but if we
devote the whole, or if we give health
or honor, love or virtue, we shall be
left poor indeed, though we count our
wealth by millions.
B%"I wish to obtain the latest pop
ular song," said Boston maiden, en-
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