The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-09


obeys the natural laws of evolution.
CONVERSATIONS OUT OF WEALTH.
1t is comfortable to be rich. So think
the poor, looking at the rich. 1t is com
Portable to be poor, think the rich.
looking out of their perplexities upon
the responsibilities of the poor. To
amass wealth takes great effort united
with great ability, but to keep it re-
quIres as much or more Commodore
Vanderbilt said his wealth was pile
of sand at which he must necessarily
labor to keep it's particles free from
their tendency to run down. Added to
that native trend is the constant aid
of envious men to help the particles
escape. A thousand things jar on the
sensitive nerves of wealth that never
disturbs the rest Of the poor. The mil
lionaire's nerves tingIe with apprehen-
sion when he reads that Finkelstein &
Feierstein have ordered a million dol
lars in gold from the treasury for ex-
port. 1t affects the poor man no more
than does the item about the export Of
a million bushels of wheat.
But out of the riches of the wealthy
come compensations for the poor. even
the very poor. The wealthy serve them
in spite of themselves Life's conditions
are easier for them than they could
possibly have made them by them
selves. 1t is good balm for discon-
tent to consider some of these. We
would all like to be rich, and we cannot
all be. Nature has so decreed it. Let
us who cannot be rich seek for the ad-
vantages we get from those who can
be. Not the least benefit Is that we
need not thank them for them. They
do not come to us as charities. They
are not cast-off clothes conternptuously
flung to us. We get them in the eff
forts Of the wealthy to better them
selves. a struggle we are all engaged
in from youth to the grave Men cam
not keep all they gather AS they move
along they leave portions behind them
for other men to enjoy.
Let us consider some of these things
and soothe the irritation envy begets.
for we all think, down in our hearts.
that we have not been dealt justly by.
as the rich man rolls by in his carriage.
while We trudge home ON foot carry
ing our dinner pail with a weeks scant
wages In our pockets, to homes where
wants are plentier than comforts. Pass
by those unsubstantial things that ap-
peal to an aesthetic sense we have M
time nor means to cultivate: their
beautiful homes, gardens, flowers.
whose beauty is as much for our ewes
as for theirs, and whose wealth they
cannot lock up in safety vaults. If we
go awheel we ride over the smooth
pavements they have been made to
build for us, instead of being bounced
over the rough roads we, of ourselves
only, could build We, with not a dol
lar In our pockets, independently poor.
ride along their avenues, under the
shade of the trees they have grown for
us, on the asphalt they have laid for
e,p WAeAA I&Aoe a00G0 GoEAkIOEt IIl3I comes
from the thought that in all this we
are just as rich as are they who have
made them.
But there are more material compen-
sations that come to us out of that
singular provision Of nature that gives
to some men the capacity to gather
riches and withholds II from the MANY.
We, of the poor. the poorer, the poor
est. are better housed by far than we
could be had not some men made
money before and for us. The nature
of man Is very elastic. Increase our
incomes, and new desires quickly take
up the slack until outgo holds income
taut. 1t Is he who can keep the line
always slack who gets rich. Man, by
nature, Is a home-buiIder. He builds
as his means permit, where he does not
swamp himself In exceeding them. AS
the money maker increases his store
the home grows too small, too unfash-
ionable for the girls and boys. He
builds again and again. Every city
shows these successive growths by
lines as distinct as are those that mark
the growth OF trees, or clam shells. You