Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-11-14
WEALTH AND POVERTY.

New fOTk lnotptnuent
Wealth and dpoverty are relative terms,
by no means having the same import at
all times and in all places. 1t takes a
millionaire in this city at the present
time to be what is called a wealthy man.
A farmer in the country worth fifty thou
sand dollars would by his neighbors be
deemed wealthy. The term now means
a great deal more property in ones pos
session than it did fifty years ago. The
question whether a man is rich or not
is hence one of times and places. 1t de-
pends largely upon where and when he
lives.
The same is true of the term poverty.
Those who are called poor in this coun-
try are far better off in their worldly
condition, and as to the supply of their
temporal wants than the poor in Great
Britain or in any other country of
Europe, and better off than was the same
class fifty years ago. Mr.. Gladstone, re-
ferring to those who work for wages,
says:
Upon the whole, among the results
of the last half century to them, are
that they work. fewer hours; that for
these reduced hours they receive in
creased wages; that with these increased
wages they purchase at diminished rates
H. fnh nd
spirits, of which the price can be affected
by any act of the legislature"
This was said in reference to the wage
earners in Great Britain. These facts
show that the condition of wage-earn-
ers, so far from being worse than it was
fifty years ago, is DOW actually better
than it was then.
The wage -earners of this country, not
only in the amount of money received
for their labor, but in the cheapened
money cost of the articles on which they
mainly live, as the consequence of cheap
er production, are in much better con-
dition, as to the real necessities and
comforts of life, than they were half
century ago. They are by no means as
poor in this respect as they were then;
and this change has been brought about
not by strikes and labor agaitators, but
as the effect of natural causes that are
still working, and will continue to work.
1t is not true that the progress in Amer
lean society has been marked by an equal
progress in poverty and its attendant ills.
The truth is that any man in this coun
try who is industrious, and, as a rule,
has good health, and then has the good
sense to live on less than he earns, and
thus saves something every year out of
his wages for his future wants, can usu
ally make himself and his family rea-
sonably comfortable. There may be ex-
ceptions; but this is the rule, as shown
by the general condition of such men.
These men, tho they may never become
rnilliondireS, are not poor in the sense of
suffering from unsupplied wants; and,
as rule, they are quite as happy as the
milliondires who live in splendid man
sions and roll in the luxuries of wealth.
In the matter of happiness there is far
less difference betwenn the rich and poor
than many suppose. The difference in
their outward condition by no means
implies corresponding difference in
their real enjoyments.
One of the greatest mistakes of the
modern labor-agitator consists in over
stating the poverty that exists at this
day; and an equal mistake consists in
not seeing and applying the true remedy
for the poverty that actually exists
These mistakes in combination make
such an agitator very poor reformer.
He does not really understand his own
problem.
A TREES RECORD OF ITS LIFE.
viek's Magazine.
1t is not known to every one that a
tree keeps record within its stem of
the character of each successive season
since it began its growth. If peach
tree, for instance, be examined after it
has been cut down, the ring of wood
formed in each year will show by its
amount whether the summer of that
year was warm or dry, or otherwise ia
vorable or adverse; and by the condi-
ton of the wood, the character of the
w luIcI Will UC uCAOJcu. CCNClC cdlll
frost will leave layer of soft, decaying
wood; and later frosts will be indicated
by change of color, if nothing more.
If a summer has been so dry as to
cause total rest between the growths
of June and September, the annual ring
for that year will be double one, and
sometimes barely distinguishable as one,
but liable to be taken, by not very
close observer, for two different years
growth.
Alta late meeting of the Botanical So
ciety of Edinburgh, Sir Robert Christ
isun gave the results of measurements
of large trees of different species, made
annually on lines of girth marked per-
manently with paint. In the very un-
favorable season of 1879, the deficiency
in summer temperature was nearly ten
degrees. In seven oak trees, of differ
ent species, the deficiency in annual in
crease of girth was ten per cent. In
eleven other deciduous trees, it was for
ty-two per cent; and in seventeen pines
it was twenty per cent, different species
of the same family giving nearly SINH
lar results.
NO CURE NO PAY.