The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-19


servations are widely quoted in books
and anthologies, who says, "There is
possible period coming in which
men will be ashamed to be rich" AS
the situation is now, he remarks,
"There are good many people in
the world who spend half their time
thinking what they would do if they
were rich, and the other half in cal
culating what they shall do as they
are not" The song of the multitude
is plant everywhere to escape from
poverty. 1t is pitiful no doubt to be
poor, if one is wretchedly poor, but
in highly civilized lands few, COM
paratively, fall to this condition. The
Rothschilds and Astors have little
that is really very necessary beyond
shelter, food, fuel and raiment; and
it is very slight percentage of hu-
manity that cannot in some way pro-
cure these primitive essentials.
But even deprivation and want are
not without some value. WANT"
says Theodore Parker, lis not an alb
solutely needful thing, but very need
full to teach us industry, economy,
thrift, and the creative arts. 1t
will be here no more when we have
learned it's lessons. Want is here on
sufferance, and men can eject it if
they will. Poverty, like all evils, is
amenable to suppression"
1t is not, therefore, an immitigable
evil to be bereft of many things, nor
is misfortune wholly avoided by OBJ
tanning wealth. The poet has said:
PITY the fortunes of poor old man.
Whose trembling steps have brought him to
your door,"
Affections of the Rich.
But it is not the poor man alone
who deserves pity. There are mis-
fortunes, not few, that are the tor
ment of abundance. On the poor
mans door locks are not needed. No
midnight burglar disturbs his sleep.
The highwayman has no motive to
hold him up or to threaten his life.
He is not the mark of envy, and oblo-
guy passes him by. The world may
not give him all it has to offer, but it
at least surrounds him with inestima-
BILE immunities. Neither private
gossip nor the public organs of opin-
ion busy themselves with calling him
mean. He escapes fawning syco-
plants and fattery put forward for
gain.
The rich mau, on the contrary, has
all these Affections to make his ac-
count with, and more. / cannot keep
my large estate without the aid of a
vast number of subordinates. Ny
bonds and stocks and miscellaneous
accounts require the employment of
clerk, and my business of many clerks
and servitors. In the twenty-acre
dooryard of my summer residence
seven men are necessary to keep the
grounds as they should be. In the
garden others are employed. Then
there are two stables which require
special help, and the butler, and the
house servants in many departments.
My valet, who is supposed to aid me
in small matters, must also share my
confidence, and one may be greatly
victimized if it is misplaced. On my
yacht is another group of dependents
on my purse. Men pity the President
OF the United States and the Cover
nors of our various Commonwealths
on account of their burdensome cares,
and. the slight leisure and freedom
they can calltheir own; and the situa-
tion in their case is not undeserving
of sympathy.
Retinue of Hangers On.
My retinue of hangers on who come
to me, or write to me, for benefits,
no one but myself can count. They
include far more than relations,
friends and acquaintances.
A peck of begging letters, chiefly
from poor strangers, is added weekly
to my otherwise inevitably large mail.
1t would make a curious volume to
put them all in a book; it would
make a library, in fact. One man
writes for modest check of $1,000
to enable him to lift mortgage from
his farm; wife writes not wishing
me to inform her husband that she
has SO written Though her husband
most likely suggested the idea) to ask
for large sum of money to tide him
over misfortunes incurred in his bus
insss; a young girl, knowing how
benevolent l am (though she knows