Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-09-18


who make the dominant idea of life
money getting fall far short of at1luence.
1t is estimated that only about two out
Of a hundred business men have nything
worthy tie name of success. A man
who spends his life with the one dom
inant idea Of financial accumulation
spends life not worth living.
Worldly Approval.
So the idea of worldly approval. If
that be dominant; in man S life, he is
miserable. Every four years the two
nest unfortunate men in this country
are the tvo men nominated for the
presidency The reservoirs of abuse and
diatriEe and malcdiction gradually fill
up, gallon above gallon, hogshead above
hogshead, and about midsummer these
two reservoirs will be trimming full,
and hose viii he attached to each one,
and it will play away Oh these nom
inecs. and they will have to stand it
and take the abuse, and the falsehood,
and the caricature, and the anathema,
and the caterwauling, and the filth,
and they will lie rolled in it and rolled
over and ever in it until they are
choked and submerged and strangulated,
and at every sign of returning coll
seriousness they will be parked at by all
the hounds of political parties from
ocean to ocean And yet there are a
hundred men today struggling for that
privilege, aud there are thousands of
men who are helping them i'll the strug-
gle. Now, that is not q life worth llv-
ing. Yen can get slandered and abused
cheaper than that Take it on smaller
scale Do net lie so ambitious to have a
whole reservoir rolled over on you.
But what you see III the matter of
high political rreferment you see IN
every community in the struggle for
what is called social position. Tens of
thousands of PEOPLE trying to get into
that realm, ard they are under terrific
tension. What is social position? 1t is a
difficult thing to define, but we all
know what it is. Good morals and in
telligence are not necessary, but wealth,
or IL show of wealth, is absolutely in
dispcnsable. There are men today as
notorious for their libertinism as the
night is famous for its darkness who
move in " lat is called high social posi-
ton. There are hundreds of out and out
ralles in American society whose names
arc mentioned among the distinguished
guests at the great leyees. They have
annexed all the known vices and are
longing for other worlds of diabolIsm
to conquer Coed morals are not neces-
sary in many of the exalted circles of
society.
Neither is intelligence necessary.
You find in that realm men who would
not know az adverb from an adjective
if they met it hundred times in Il day,
and who could not write letter Of &C
ceptance CT regrets without the aid of
secretary They buy their Libraries by
the square yard, only anxious to have
the binding Russian. Their ignorance
is positively sublime, making English
grammar almost disreputable. And yet
the finest parlors open before them.
Good morals and intelligence are not
necessary, but wealth or show of
wealth is positively indispensable. 1t
does not make any difference how you
got your wealth, if you only got 1t.
The lest way for you to get into social
position is fer you to buy a large amount
oil credit, then Put your property IN
your wife's name, have few preferred
creditors, and then make al assignment.
Then disappear from the community
until the breeze is over and come bnck
and start III the same business. Do you
not see how beautifully that will put
out all the people who are in ccmpeti-
ton with you and trying to make an
honest living? How quickly it will get
you into high social position? What is
the use of toiling 40 or 90 years when
you can By two or three bright strokes
make great fortune? All, my friends,
when you really lose your money how
quickly they will let you drop. and the
higher you get the harder you will drop.
There are thousands today Ill that
realm who are anxious to keep III 1t.
There are thousands in that realm who
are nervous for fear they will fall out
of it, and there are changes going on
every year, and every, month, and every
hour which involve heartbreaks that
are never reported. High social life is
constantly in a flutter about the delicate
question as to whom they shall let in
and whom they shall push out, and tho
battle is going on-pier mirror against
pier mirror, chandelier against chande-
lier, wine cellar against wine cellar,
wardrobe against wardrobe, equipage
against equipage. Uncertainty and in
security dominant in that realm, wretch
edness enthrored, torture at premium
and a life not worth living!
All Dead Failures.
A life Of sin, /; life Of pride, life of
indulgence, life Of wor!dliness, life
devoted to tie world, the flesh and the
devil, is Il failure, dead failure, an in
finite failure | care net how many
presents you send to that cradle or how
many gprlauds you send to that grave,
you need To put right under the name
on the tombstone this inscription: Bet
ter fer that man if re had never been
boru -
But l shall show you life that is
worth living. a young man says: l
am here l am not responsible for my
n,,nnctr,- Gtllerc dccidcd that am