Evening journal., 1893-09-05
THs POVERTY OF Rich MEN.
Perhaps Hungry People DO Not After All
Feel Worse Than Many Others.

Feel Worse Than Many Others.
The editor of Scribner's Magazine, who
probably enjoys moderate income of his
own, expatiates on the disadvantages Of
much riches and the lack of any. Like the
philosopher who wanted merely enough, he
seems to believe that the middle condition
IS best and this he fixes at somewhere about
s., 900 year. This is a good deal more than
most men yet. 1t is more than most Of
them can earn legitimately, or gain specu-
latively, or acquire in the form of a legacy.
They must therefore be content with less.
IN fact, the sum mentioned puts its recipient
IN a way TO acquire tastes that are so ex-
pensive as TO exhaust that income and keep
him as poor as the laborer who is satisfied
with his clothes, his food his fire and his
beer. That man ought to be happy who Is
well supplied with funds, but has no tastes,
because he is assured against want, but
that man who is born with a champagne
appetite and achieves only beer income
must ever be an object Of commiseration to
himself and to those who know him.
In days of doubt aud financial stringency
many families resort to economies that no
doubt cause distress. One man sold one or
two Of his half dozen horses; another rented
his summer cottoge; third put his steam
yacht out Of commission, and fourth un-
willingly desisted from increasing his col
lection of japanese bronzes These re-
straints are as distasteful and oppressive as
the compulsion Of the laborer to refrain
moderately from tenderloin steaks and the
necessity that his wife should postpone the
purchase Of a bright calico dress, because
no two men have the same standards OF
| life the same desires and tastes, nor the
/ IL. 1fl ],
/ to comfort, knowledge and pleasure.
Poverty is a relative term, and there isno
unkempt vagrant who does not believe that
there are several tramps more ragged, more
hungry, more populous than he. There art
some vagabonds who never realize that
they are poor while their stomachs and to
bacco pouches are full Then there are
young bloods in New York who try to livs
on beggarly $4,000 year and can't do it.
They are always in trouble, always being
! sued by inconsiderate tradesmen, always
chased by race track blacklegs, always th'
prey of ballet girls, always sponged upor
| bv parasites, always ostracised by rich un
cles. always losing at cards, always sorl
enough in mind and sometimes In body L
cry and always laughed at by the public
and these gentry are in truth the poorest o
us all. When they shift into barroou
leeches and red nosed wanderers, they ar
the most worthless of their species.
The Prince Of Wales, who also sets th
fashion in the color Of gloves and the wa.
of carrying the cane-usually by accident
Is the model that these young persons hav
for their inner as well as their obviou
lives. and they even try to improve on tn
pattern. When man takes money bG
longing to another, he Is a thief. Whe
he takes its equivalent the work, time an
stock of tailor and refuses TO refund, b
is called a man of the world, and his e.
plnit is accounted as rather clever. Tn
Prince Of Wales is a man Of the world an
is clever, and his imitators here want TO /
clever too.
It is the sorest disadvantage Of rich'
when il makes their pOssessor poor in spi
! it. Nobody claims that this is true in Il
great majority of cases. Nobody denies il
truth in conspicuous and offensive II
stances. The poor man has the advantal
Of the rich one, if he 20 modifes his idei
? that he can not only reach them but d
rive that content, and compass that NOR
and intellectual expansion that seem
; the human comedy TO be denied to tho
, whose aims are toward wholly IHateri
2 prosperity and sensuous pleasures. 1t
the adaptation of the end to the means tn
5 sufiioes. Few Of US need be pOor.-Broo
Il ,r.Ia