Owingsville outlook., 1896-08-20
Baths Wealthiest Men Are
Farmers.

"Mr. Editor: For the sake of information
would ask you IL you ever knew or heard Of
a farmer being millionaire? Or did you
ever know n laborer to amass so mach? II
you did not, which feel positive you never
did, does 1t not seem there have been some
unfair means used to build up such for
tunes? Does the average reader or laborer
have any idea what 1t takes to make one
million of dollars? II not, will give a SIM
pie illustration: IL our Savior had received
one dollar per day from the time of his
birth, not losing day for wet, cold or sick
ness, up to the present time, he would not
have been half millionaire. One dollar
per day is n fair price in fifty-cent dollars.
How long would the average Iaborer have
to live to amnss such a fortune in appre-
ciated gold dollars where he had to put up
about three days labor to buy the dollar? Is
1t any wonder or at all strange that our
Savior forgave the thief on the cross and
drove the money changers from the temple?
We have every reason to believe that n SIM
liar system is being practiced on the Amer
lean people. No man ever made SO much un-
less some ones blood cried up from the
ground, nor there never was n dollar Of
honest capital unless labor produced it,
Knob Lick Correspondent.
Yes, we have read that not only
in Great Britain, where there are
many millionaire land owners who
reside on and conduct their estates,
but there are also innumerable mil
lionaire farmers in America. We
call to mind two conspicuous in
stances in Central Kentucky, name
ly, "Old Gray Beard" Sam Clay, of
Bourbon, and Alexander, of Wood
ford county.
All millionaires who have not
fallen heir to their property are
laborers who have gained their
wealth by the labor of their brains.
The progenitor of the Astor fam
lily of millionaires, John Jacob
Astor, who built up the vast foun-
dations of that family's fortune,
started out in life a poor German
boy. But he had the priceless gift
of genius and brain that could
plan and project enterprises on an
imperial scale. He was one of the
worlds most useful and gifted Ia
borers.
Old Cornelius Vanderbilt, who
started the accumulations of the
Vanderbilt family of millionaires,
began life as an obscure Dutch cab
bage-raiser. The labor of his
brains brought him legitimateiy
more wealth than he could count in
one-dollar pieces.
Astor and Vanderbilt were good
and useful men to their country.
They were geniuses, but they were
laborers who did more work than a
regiment of common laborers, be-
cause they were gifted with the
capacity for it. No ordinary mind
can have an adequate conception of
the industry and immense labor of
such men.
The instances in which poor, OBJ
scure young men have started out
in the world as day-laborers or
small-salaried employees and have
risen to be millionaires are too nu-
merous to cite. Nearly all million
aires who did not heir their prop
erty rose from poor beginnings.
But we will admit that no day-la-
borer can become rich if he spends
his wages (or little more than his
wages as fast as he earns them. 1t
doesn't matter whether his wages
are SO cents or $40 per day, if he
wishes to have property he must
save a part of his wages. If he
wills to become wealthy the way is
open to him, for the examples are
conspicuous of men who began bus
mess life at so cents per day or
less.
But all can't become millionaires.
The vast majority of the people
must be content with aspirations
towards a reasonable competency
only. That is within the reach of
all if they will use both manual
and brain labor.
Who are the wealthy and the
well-to-do men of Bath county, |
The answer is, At least nine out of |
ten of them are farmers, worth |
from $4,000 up to 100000.
In the past generations and at
present nearly all the wealthy men
of Bath county were and are far
mers; for instance, Archibald Ham
ilton, his sons James and George,
and his grandsons George G.. and
William and Harvey Ber-
ry, johnson A. Young, Thomas j.
Young, Thomas Jones, Caleb Rat
lift, James and johnson Whaley, all
farmers of the Flat Creek section;
William Atchison and his sons
Jessie and William, Joshua Ewing
and his sons Henry and Penrose,
A. j. Ewing and his son F. NJ,
Thomas Lewis, Ambrose L. Wright
.,.l Ok IN a0IHoetor Ill |