The morning call., 1891-09-06
WEALTH A CURSE
TO BE STUNNED.
Sunday School Lessons Regarding the Rich
Man.
How They Compare With the Yellow-covered
Literature of the Day-Eow the Pow
erty-Strieken Poets Sheer.

man in real life are dIsslmllar OeinRs. III
books the rich man is not popular. he Is
usually dishonest, care-ridden and hated by
almost every body, says the Chicago Herald
In nursery rhymes and schooi-booK ntera-
ture lie is held up as an object of scorn, and
his example is portrayed as something TO be
carefully avoided by every well-thinklng
person, and all because lie Is rich. IL
is really quite remarkable how many
well bred and carefully brought up
young men forget their good train
ng and early instruction and straight
way proceed to piling up the dollars.
At Suuday-school they are told about the
rich man and Lazarus until they almost
come to believe it is better to be sick peg
gar and let the dogs lick their sores than TO
be rich man and live in brownstone
mansion. 1t seems that If one can only be-
poor widow and contribute a mite to some
good cause it would be amore gracious priv
ilege than to be millionaire and endoW
a theological college. But We cannot al!
be widows, nor can we all be Door. Some
of us have got to BE- rich, no matter how
much we are blamed for 1t and looked down
upon by our neghbOrs. Some men are born
rich, some achieve riches and some nave
riches thrust upon 'em. None but those
who achieve riches are really to be GEN.
sured for having more money in their in
side pocket than is required to settle their
tailor and board bills. With persons who
are born rich wealth is a constitutional
malady.
OTHERS HAVE WEALTH
Thrust upon them and keep toying with it
until it becomes habltual with them. as
poverty does with lots of other people
Some persons are such reckless procraStl-
majors that they die with lot of unspent
cash on hand. notwithstanding the awful in
junction that 1T is easier for camel to go
through the eye of needle than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of God" Boys
as a rule are sound on this vital ques-
ton concerning the evil Of boarding
riches. They wont hoard dollar over
night il they can mud place to spend IT,
They have been told at SuudayschoOl that
the love Of money is the root OF all evil
and they never fail to improve an oppor-
tunity to show how lightly they regard It,
In all of tue Sunday-schoUl books 1t is the
poor man who does the truly merltorous
deeds, while the rich man is al
ways doing something that greatly
peris his chances of happy here
after. And the rich mans rich son al
ways goes TO the demnitIOn bowwows on
canter. His father is cursed with gold and
so the boy must necessarily go wrong. But
the poor widows hard handed, sun-burned
boy who wears old-fashioned. Ill-fiLtlng
clothes and large, coarse cownide boots-he
gets to the front every time. he always
goes to Congress or something Of that kind,
while the rich boy goes to something even
wOrse-the penltentlary. Oh, II the sons oil
poor widows only knew how much they
have to be thankful for, how they would
pity rich mems sons, who smoke cigarettes
and wear ice-cream pants. 1t Is great
wonder that rich sons who read the books
do not Kill their fathers and reduce their
mothers to state of poverty so as to have
a fair chance to grow up and become the
salf ada m of tine nation
AS WORKS OF PURE FICTION.
The good-little-boy Sunday-school books
almost rival the yellow-colored stories Of
the thrice-scalped frontier. The poets, too,
have delighted in portraying the happiness
and contentment to be found III the poor
mans cot and the cherries picture of sor-
row to be seen in the rich mans hall.
Shakespeare says:
Poor and content is rich and rich enough.
Gray writes thus of the rich poor man:
From toll he wins his spirit light.
From busy day the peaceful night;
Rich from the very want OF wealth,
In heavens best treasures, peace and health.
Goldsmith similarly describes the same
character:
His best companions, innocence and health,
And his best riches, ignorance OF wealth.
John Haywood takes this light aud airy
view OF riches:
The loss OF wealth is \ loss OF dirt.
All ges in all times assert:
The happy mans without shirt.
Let the world slide, let the world 60;
fig for care and fig for wool
If can't pay, why owe.
Aud cath makes equal the high and low.
Almost the whole of the workaday world
has learned TO lcok, with Shakespeare with
disfavor upon "the wealthy curled darlings
of oGr nation" However, while a great
majority of the poets tell US to avoid wealth
as We would n Destilence they are not imam.
imous u on this point. Ben Jonson says:
Get money; still get money, boy
No matter by what means
And Pope expresses the same thought in
this wise:
Get place and wealth: IL possible with grace;
II not, by any means get wealth and pace.
In the midst of these conflicting opinions
one is almost at a loss to know what to
do-whether to add to the few dollars he
may have accumulated or to throw away his
gold aud have no more to do with the filthy
stuff.