St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-23
THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.
Rev. S. w. Sample Upon the Hor-
rors Of Being a Millionaire.

POrS OF Being Millionaire.
The peoples meeting at Century hall
Yesterday afternoon was quite fully at
tended, and the address by Rev. 5. w.
Sample was received with enthusiastic
applause. His subject was 1.-The AL
mighty Dollar" Before his address lie
referred to the petitions which are now
being circulated asking the legislature
to raise the age of consent.
Il have been told,' he said, that an
eminent divine of Minneapolis, in re-
feTring 10 our discussion of this subject
here, had said that he would as soon
think of introducing a discussion OF the
houses of i'll fame into his sermons as
such a subject. /, for my part, do not
believe in silence and ignorance as a
bulwark. If any one does not like our
method of conducting a campaign
against this evil and thinks he
has better way, let him
use it. This criticism of our
method is in quite as bad taste as it
would be for me to publicly criticise the
working of the Salvation Army, which
is trying to do the same work we are,
but in different way"
Then taking up the subject announced
he said:
Those who come here expecting to
hear an indiscriminate abuse of money
will be disappointed. Money is but a
symbol of power, and may be acquired
or used either rightly or wrongly. 1t Is
not wrong for man to desire rightly
purchased power that is rightly used.
and in this day it is no SOrdid miSerll-
ness which leads to the grasping of
great wealth, but desire Of power.
On a certain day in New York, some
years ago, every one was in sincere
mourning for certain rich man, a
man who had begun life poor, but had
amasSed fortune, every penny or
which was honestly earned and which
he used with greater benefit to his
fellow men than any rich man
that ever lived. Not dollar
of it was stained with tear or a drop
of the blood of his fellow men. He was
universally loved and respected by all,
and there was not drayman in New
York who would not turn out for him.
Yet he was rich man. have no atred
for rich men. yet say that the greatest
evil of to-day is the worship Of Man,
mon. The monument to the Pill
grim fathers is grand memo
rial 10 grand men, but if q
monument should be erected to the
greatest power for evil in our country
to-day it would be statue of MammOn.
Sergius Stepniak, in lecturing on the
evils of the Russian government the
other night, said that in most countries
man was a soul and body, but in Rus
STA man must be soul, body and
passport. In this country man
to be full-hedged man
must be a soul. body and a
dollar. A man is only respected for his
wealth, and il-won fortunes are held
under the placid Indifference of society
to be inviOIable. There is depth of deg
radiation in this age below atheism.
1t is this damnable Indifference to
everything but wealth. The worship
of MammOn even comes to the mar
riage altar and pourS forth its
abominabe slime. Few mar
riageS are made among certain
classes now except for wealth, and for
woman to marry fsr wealth is to write
her name IN the same list as are written
the names of the occupants of certain
uncomfortable houses we all know of.
Here i'll a UniversaliSt journal pub
lished in Boston, | read: The piing
of the wealth of Vanderbilt and of other
milli0nareS has been a great boon to
this country" Can man in lifetime
ever honestly earn the wealth of
Vanderbilt. No. most emplatically, no!
Were man to have laid by $25, 900 every
year, princely income in itself, from
the time that Adam and Eve dwelt in
the Garden of Eden, he would still lack
q quarter Of that sum. 10 become
millionaire three rules must be adopted
you must believe every one liar;
you must believe every one thief; you
must bid goodbye to art. to education,
TO love and to religion, and make the
~ thn inf 80
This dreadful MammoniSm comes even
into the sanctuary, drags its Shiny
length up the aisle and Spews his foul
vomit on the bread of the communion
table. The rich man has his attractive
pew, but the poor one is compelled to
stink off in a corner. The ministers IN
weigh against the evils on the banks of
the Nile but they say nothing about the
horrors of monopoly and child labor at
home. Woman cries, 81 am how
ering between starvation and the
brothel. Open to me greater
avenue of labor" Society says: "HuSh,
would you unseX yOurself?" The des-
ert OF Sahara was once vast, blooming
garden. Mans wastefulness destroyed
the trees; this dried up the springs and
rivers, and now it IS but a horrid waste.
Let us beware that our spirituality be
not destroyed in the same way. Uni
versalsm has done away with the idea
that mother can rest content in heaven
while her son endures the tormentS of
hell. But what shall we do with the
hellS next door?
But | will turn from this dark picture
TO show some mistakes that are made
about money. Many people think that
money means happiness. The happiest
men who have ever lived have been
poor, while Stephen Girard said that he
welcomed every moment of sleep that
would take him from misery. Again, it
is a mistake to think that the piling I'D
of pyramids of money means great brain
power. 1t is true that in one of many
cases, such as that of Thomas Edison,
riches and intellect go hand in hand,
but almost Invariably fortunes are built
by chance, dishonesty, monopoly or OPP
preston. 1t is thought that money is
all. powerful. 1t cannot bring the most
valuable things in life, friendship, true
love or favor with God. Ideas are of
more avail than money. "Uncle Toms
Cabin" did more to destroy slavery
than all of Garrison'S money, and
Ralph Waldo Emerson mas been the
greatest power OF the last quarter cent
ury.
Then let US see how to throttle this
dragon, Mammon, First we should
limit the power of bequest, next let us
destroy monopoly, and let us, each one
do his mite to remedy this evil, by ceas-
ing our own sYcOphancy to the rich.
Let US respect manhood and virtue,
whether it be dressed in broadcloth or
jeans"
The address next Sunday afternoon
will be by Rev. Kristofer Jansen, on
1.-The Barking Dog"
Ex-Goy. y2hn S. Pillsbury is to build and
present TO the town of sutton, n. H. his
native nlace q hnildirc for q tour ho,1Sn 1t