San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-25
CHAPTER ON RICHES.
Wealth Achieved by Honest Means
is Worthy of Praise.


confer upon them the whole cats
logue of sins. Many poor men are
sour-faced, morose, Grabbed, Ill
poverty never made them 80, they
germs of the disposition and temper
which they now display 30 Offensive
~, and they have only brought these
germs to maturity by never seeking
to subdue them. Again, there are
poor men with sunny dispositions
and pleasant tempers, who abound In
kindness and charity, whose
lives have been marked by
the hardest struggles with
poverty and sickness, and / ask how
it happened that poverty did not rem.
der them sOur-faced, .mOrose and
Grabbed, too? 1t Is the same with
rich men. One is kind. gentle and
charitable in his disposition and plain
and unassuming in dress and deport.
ment; another is naughty, supercili-
Gus, overbearing, penuriOus and full
of selfishness, but each was born into
the world with the germs of the dis
position and temper that they display
now.
There is nothing criminal in wealth
that has been honestly amassed,
nothing that should subject the pos
SCISSOR of 1T to the bitter hatred of an
entire class Of people, who have never
so much as seen him, or had any bus
mess with him. Nor is honestly
made wealth In any sense q
robbery of the poor, or Of
any one else, much less .
wrong done to them. Many cross
grained people hate all rich men, and
denounce them In the bitterest terms.
It did not use to be so. Demagogues
and labor agitators have brought this
hatred of rich men into fashion, In
their effort to win the favor of work
ingmen In order to crafty their self
ish designs. / cannot help feeling
contempt for any man, who regards
it as crime to be honestly rich, and
who avows hatred for all rich men.
Let them be treated fairly, be judged
as individuals, not condemned in the
gross as class.
The annals of mankind ankle men,
ton of only few men who voluntar-
lily preferred life of poverty to one of
wealth. Almost all men and women,
too, as to that matter, have q
craving for wealth, not from avarice,
but from q love of comfort, ease, plen-
ty and luxury according to the taste
of the Individual. This love of acqui-
sition was jmplan ted in the heart of
men BY nature, for q wise and benefi-
cent purpose, so that it is silly to quar-
rel with it. This love of acquisition
is stronger and more intense In some
races than in others. The Caucasian
race have a more intense desire for
acquiring than any other race. The
Indians have this desire in an infini-
tesimal degree. And negroes also
possess it in small degree. Races
with an intense desire for acquiring
are aggressive, enterprisiug; active,
industrious, perseverIug and econ
omical, and are ready to brave any
perils aud to encounter any hardships,
if they have a prospect of acquiring
wealth.
/ repeat that it Is silly to quarrel
with an instinct of nature. This love
of acquisition has done wonders in
the way of ditiusiug the arts and
sciences of civilization, as it has i'm
PEELED men to visit distant and saw
age nations, aud to brave Dertos of
the ocean. But for this very desire
of acquisition, North America would
not now have been half settled.
How are we to prevent B from
amassing greater riches than Z?
Both have the same chance and the
same start, aud both begin life in the
same town. b is liberal, G is parsim-
onious, as well as covetous. But, at
the end of twenty years, b is worth
his millions, while 9 has only scrap
ed together hundred thousand dol
lars. How did this happen? B spec.
ulated with tact and Judgment; e
was too penurious and timtd ever to
risk a dollar, he logged on,
slowly, avoiding all risks, and
saving every dollar he made.
Now, has B been the enemy Of the
poor? By no means. He has not
come in conflict with the poor, ia
any of his speculations. He has
wholly speculated In stocks.
Is B to be branded as q robber and
oppressor of the poor, simply. because
his speculationsi in stocks have proved
fortunate, and he has grown rich?
That would be the climax of Injustice.
Let us take another case, which is
often met with in this world of ups
and downs. Tom and John Carson
were full brothers. They were nv
playmates and school fellows, and
cleverer boys never existed. Tom
Carson was the bravest and the
gentlest boy whom / ever knew. He
was as brave as lion, yet as gentle
as q woman. Well, he and his
brother John started out in life on an
equal footing both had their for
tunes to make.