The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-08-28
THE POVERTY OF RICH MEN.
Perhaps Hungry People DO Not After Al
Feel Worse Than MANY Others

Perhaps Hungry People DO Not After All
Feel Worse Than MANY Others.
The editor Of Scrbucr's Magazine, who
probably enjoys moderate income Of bis
own, eXpatiatcs on the disadvantages of
much riches and the lack OF any. Like the
philosopher who wanted merely enough, he
seems TO believe chat the middle condition
Is best, and this he l..H at puewherc about
5000 year. This IS "a good deal more than
most men get. II Is more than most Of
them can earn legitimately, az gain spccu-
latively, or acquire in the form of legacy.
They must therefore be content with less.
In fact, the sum mentioned puts its recipient
In way to acquire tastes that are so ex.
pensive rs 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 he happy who is
well supplied with funds, but has no tastes,
because he is assured against want, but
that man who Is born with n champagne
appetite and achieve only beer income
must ever be an object Of cou.r .ration to
himself and to those who know him.
In days OF doubt and financial stringency
many families resort 20 economies that no
doubt cause distress. One man sold ore on
two Of his half dozen horses; another rented
hio ohhihiNi NbttbSfs ~ NbllN pun MS Sltdln
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 bright calico dress. because
no two men have the same standards Of
life, the same desires and tastes, nor the
same aptitude in the application of wealth
to comfort, knowledge and pleasure
Poverty Is n relative term, and there is no
unkempt vagrant who does not believe that
there are several tramps more ragged, more
hungry, more populous than he There are
some vagahonds who never realize that
they are poor while their stomaehs and to-
bacco pouches are full Then there are
young bloods in New York who try to live
on beggarly $50 600 a year and can't do it.
They are always in trouble, always being
sued by inconsiderate tradesmen, always
chased by race track blacklegs, always the
prey of ballet girls, always sponged upon
by parasites, always ostracised by rich un-
cles, always losing at cards, always sore
enough in mind and sometimes in body to
cry and always laughed at by the public
and these gentry are in truth the poorest of
us all. When they shift into barroom
leeches and red nosed wanderers, they are
the most worthless Of their species.
The Prince Of Wales, who also sets the
fashion in the color of gloves and the way
of carrying the cane-usually by accident
is the model that these young persons have
for their inner as well as their obvious
lives, and they even try to improve on the
pattern. When man takes money be
longing to another, he is n thief When
he takes its equivalent, the work, time and
stock of a tailor and refuses to refund, he
is called man of the world, and his ex.
plot is accounted as rather clever. The
Prince of Wales is n man of the world and
is clever, and his imitators here want to be
clever too.
1t is the sorest disadvantage of riches
when it makes their possessor poor in spir
1t. Nobody claims that this is true in the
great majority of eases. Nobody denies its
truth in conspicuous and offensive in
stances. The poor man has the advantage
of the rich one, il he so modifies his ideas
that he can not only reach them but de
rive that content, and compass that moral
and intellectual expansion that seem in
the human comedy TO be denied to those
whose aims are toward wholly material
prosperity and sensuous pleasures. 1t Is
the adaptation of the end to the means that
suf1ices Few of us need be poor.-Brook-
lyn Eagle.