Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-11-03
SUCCESS IN LIFE.
II Is Not Merely the FILLING Of Money Bags
or Accommodating Property.


Not long since, the death OF mill
lionaire was announced in the papers,
and his life was held up as an example
for young men to initiate. He started
in life poor, but by constant labor. un-
tagging energy and sharp practice, he
succeeded in accommodating over mill
lion dollars in the course Of sixty years.
Therefore, his life was success. say
these public educators, and is worthy
of imitation.
Those who were more intimately &C.
quainted with this man. know that his
life was a miserable failure in every
thing but the accumulation Of wealth.
1t was his sole aim to be rich, and
every faculty OF his being was brought
under subsection to this all-absorbing
desire. Until infirmity compelled, he
was never known to be absent from
business single day in twenty-five
years, and during all that time he never
did one charitable act. His life was one
of self-interest, without single feat
ure worthy of imitation save that Of i'm
dustry and determination. These were
his only redeeming qualities, and they
were perverted from virtues into vices.
We protest against the practice Of
holding up the lives of such men for our
sons to initiate. Success In life is not
merely filing money-bags or accumu-
lating property. This is all right, le-
ultimate and praiseworthy, when done
with u proper motive. 1t is right to
wish to place ourselves in comfortable
circumstances. to furnish means to edu-
cate our children, to develop all our ca
pacities for enjoying life, and to do good
to the world in the thousands of ways
open to the rich. But there should be
n limit to our desires, even with these
most worthy objects in view. 1t is bet
ter to take the good we possess, as we
| go along, than to wait for an ideal con-
dition that may never be attained. In
deed, it is this waiting, this refusal to
enjoy, this unbending resolution to pos
sess more, that transforms the man. UNI
consciously, from a creature of COM
mendable aspirations to the sordid, self
interested miser.
We believe in moderation and tenn
perance, in all spheres OF labor-on the
farm and in the farmhouse, as well as
in the contingencies, the bank or the
store. The man who sinks every higher
aspiration to the level of mere acquis-
itiveness, loses every capacity of enjoy
ment save that one. 1t is not right to
become so habituated to labor that one
is not contented unless constantly at it.
1t is a duty to cultivate all the faculties
OF our natures, not one alone, and we
shall be held as much responsible for
neglect in this direction rs in any other
lmprovidence is term not confined to
waste OF material substance alone. The
dead millionaire was improviden5 in
every thing that would elevate, expand
and ennoble. Life has been bur-
dcn,' were the last words of one who
had spent a long life in the pursuit OF
wealth, and had failed in his object Mt
last. 1t was a wasted life-utterly
wasted-is the universal verdict. but it
was not more so than that OF the mil
| lionaire who had wasted all that makes
life of value and saved only that which
the elements could destroy or the low
est thief could steal.-Ohio Farmer.