The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-06-22

Bacon calls il the baggage Of vir
tue. bat even he limits il j. the on,
thing universally used. coveted an,
5 reviied. All men affect TO hold j
alike. all men secretly banker afte
IT For my part, though not As s
rule given To the Pharisaieal mood.
am sometimes disposed TO thank Goo
that To me IL has been AT ali times an
instrument aud not an end
Now never was happier in my
ilie than when 10 avoid the humilin.
ton of borrowing from an unel.
whose politics | did not approve
uanghter) went with my watch To
an uncle who had no politics at all.
and got the money 0aughterl
But l never knew what il was To be
thoroughly unhappy until | had ac-
CURED considerable income, with
ITS accumulation of want, aud was
brought into close personal
intimacy with those charming
friends of man who had
what they call credit in bank. Mr..
Promlssory Note, aud Messrs. Renew
al d Discount, etc. nevertheless il is
a good thing TO have plenty of money
honest y obtained, and still better
thing If this money be honestly ap
piled.
The cameFs passage through the
needles eye may have been easier in
thoso Old days than u rich mans en-
trance INTO the kingdom of Heaven,
particularly, if it happened to be a
very small camel and a very large
needle, but on the other hand there
must have been many a rich man gone
to heaven, for We nave the record of
many "a good one here on earth, men
who have served God and loved their
fellow men, and given freely of their
store to the needy and the poor, |
should hate to think that money is
positive bar to salvation. and that 1t
IS natural sin to &eea aud gain nuch
OF 1t, but it in undoubtedly true that
the possession of money will harden
aud corrupt ten times to the one time
1t eleyates and ennobleS. The man
who trades IL mepey IS apt TO take on
some OF the brittleness of the metal
composing it, and he gets in time to
measure everything and everybody
by that metallic standard 1t il his
business in life t9 rub two dollars to-
gether to make three of them, or per-
haps four, five Or six. Capital, we
are told, is timid that is. because it
has no heart IN it, but has eyes and
ears. and il makes up for its lack of
courage by carefulness that rarely
trusts except on good security, but
never tires evcept when the debt is
past and is alwaya suspicious of the
holder. How many a good fellow
have l known turned into a bad fell
low by the posse easloA of money.
how mony q generous fellow who
has entered a bank all grace to come
out all gold, and how few instances
of the possession of money has en-
larged the mind and amplified the
soul. Our literature is full of illus
trations, some of them humorous
and some of them pathetic, showing
the evils that wealth has brought to
lndiyiduals and family; but wa need
not these fictitious examples we are
constantly met IN our own daily
walks by INSTANCES that point the
moral and adorn the tale Of great ex-
pectatIons coming to naught by actu-
al realization and delightful visions
OF fancy turned to afhes and dead
sea fruit in the hands of possession.
1t is my belief that the world has
been much misled by some of its best
maxlms, or rather let me say by the
mlslnterpretation Of It's most accep-
ted maXlms.
For example, there il acne of those
that appears in 80 many languages
and puts itself in such variety of
phrase as that which urges us to per-
severe in all thing. Perseverance,,
we are told, conquerS al, things.
Then we are told that labor conqucrs
all things. Then we are told tha.
love oonquers all things No perse-
verence will divert any man from
the uses to which he was born. La
Dor went change a clod into :. PAIN
ter or poet and love, full as it il
of enjoyment and power, never made
silk purse out of cows ear,
though sometimes very young people |
think so. Uaughtcr) Persever-
ence may be nlisdirected and SO be-
come vicious labor may he misap-
plled, ami so wasted aud hove may
make another hero-often a false
victim to iss own excesses. How of
ten have We seen man start out
in life saying will be rich | will
sacrafice everything to riches or
will be famous :; | will sacrifice ev-
erything to- fame, who has found be-
tore the journey was half over not
only that none of the material things
of life bring happiness, ont that
happiness itself shifts its foot from
time to time, that failing utterly to
please and satisfy us at five and for
ty which delighted US at five and
twenty. Qftenest the sacrifices made,
and failure, and even the wine cup
of success is attained, how it fails to
bring us what we expected. And |
think it lesson that the poores.
workingman needs to learn very ear
ly in life.
An eminent public man once said
TO me in the presence Of a great do
mestic bereavement, 81 was elected
to the senate of the United States
when | was just turned thlrty, but
by an act of treason of a supposed
fniend | lost my seat some three
years later, and from that day to this,
for the last fifteen years, my one aim
in life, aud the whole aim and object
of my existence has been to get that
seat back again, and at last that wish
has beeu fulfilled, and what does it
matter after all ?
once heard president of the
United States say : Il was candi-
date for twenty years regularly ev-
cry four years my state sent dele