The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-05
a close can for Aar. saee.


The attempt yesterday to asssssinste Rus
sell Sage, the widely-knOwn Wall street
millionaire and SPECTATOR, will have the
effect Of making millionsire5 nervous, and
of causing them to think that after all vast
wealth is not 50 desirable as the majority Of
men seem TO think It is. The feeling Of
power which accompanies the possession Of
wealth is a very agreeable one. but the lives
Of those who have great possessions are
not altogether pleasant. They are the OBJ
ject Of the envy Of those who are less fort
innate, and they are worried by the cares
which their wealth imposes upon them. In
deed, most of them find it more difficult to
keep their money than they did 70 accumu-
late it. They are urged to invest in all sorts
Of promising schemes, and they are regarded
as legitimate objects Of prey by promoters
OF all sorts of wild cat enterprises.
A man who has plenty o; money Is sup
posed to have a very easy time, but, as
general rule, he gets less real enjoyment
mems out Of life than the clerk TO whom he
pays small salary. To invest his money
safely so as TO get good income from it is
something he finds rather difficult to do. and
the losses he sometimes sustains destroys his
digestion and deprives him Of sleep.
Russell Sage is one of the richest men in
the country. He ranks with the Goulds,
Vanderbilts, Astors and Rockefellers. By
some he is rated to be a richer man than
Gould. 1t is certain that at all times he
has command of more ready cash than any
other man In New York city. He may
be charitable man, but If he is
the world does not know it. His
| great pleasure is in increasing his
already vast fortune. He is getting to be
| quite an old man, and it is time that he was
thinking of retiring from business, but he is
| Just as eager apparently to make turn in
stocks or to lend money at high rate of
interest on frst-class security as he ever
was. If he escapes the cranks ard lunatics
| it is probable that he will wear his life out
in pursuit of gold.
The man who attempted 10 take his life
yesterday was, of course, a lunatic. A sane
man would not have undertaken such mad
scheme. He might have threatened assas-
| sination, but he would not have executed
his threat, because he would have gained
nothing by doing so.
The incident, however, shows that feel
ing of unrest is getting possession Of very
large class of people in this country. The
evidence of its existence is seen in the grow
ing frequency with which bold attempts at
robbing express cars, banks and rich men
are made. The men who have engaged in
robbing express cars and making raids upon
banks in broad daylight recently ore not
naturally criminals-not such criminals
as petty thieves. They are men who
think the world owes them a living and
they propose to have it without making any
very great exertion to get 1t. Men like the
one who attempted to take the life
of Russell Sage with a, dynamite bomb
have thought so long of the wealth of
millionaires that they have become de-
ranged. They are sane upon every subject
except that of money, and, hence, escape
arrest until they do, or attempt to do, some
thing that. calls attention to their mental
condition.
Russell Sage has had narrow escape
too narrow to be comfortable. In future
those who interview him will have to do so
through the keyhole of his private Office.