The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-02
OUR ,MILLIONAIRES.
LIKE OTHERS BEFORE THEM SOME
ARE DOOMED TO oBscuRITY.

Wealth Is 20 Use It-Some Who VIII
Not BE Remembered Thirty Days After
They Are Dead.
The London Spectator once published !
list OF those it called ''obscure mil
honaires" who had died within the pre-
vious ten years. The list was rather !
long one This age is shopkeeping age,
It Is true. 1t is apt, we say, to value |
men according to their property. Great
wealth gives great consideration, and
yet. Notwithstanding the exaggerated
Importance of money and money get
ting, it appears that wealth in the lar
gest measure redeems no man from OBJ
security; that money in itself. by it's
mere possession, confers no distinction
which even this age values. It's use, and
not its possession, is all that can make
1t q matter of distinction. In our own
country, even more than in Europe,
wealth exaggerates its own consequence.
1t is natural that it should, for here,
more than there, it is "a personal mat
ter The American millionaire has
"made, as he says, his own millions.
They represent his own shrewdness. in
dustry, tact, perseverance or "good
luck" He is fond, it may be, of re-
minding us all that it is so. He is
"self made man." and recurs to the
| time when he was q barefoot boy, or
penniless youth, with some pride, as
proof of how bright man he is in hav-
| ing changed by his own unaided powers
the early poverty for the present wealth.
He feels in his heart he has done a
noble work and that he deserves the
commentator Of mankind for doing it.
He is liable to disappointment. as we
| all know, and il is somewhat strange
that, shrewd as he is in money matters,
he is so blind in others For the rest of
/ the world is very busy, and has little
time to trouble itself about his success
or his failure. Neither can other people
see on exactly what grounds man can
claim its applause only for having taken
good care Of his own interests.
The consideration given to him for
his money is given only to his face by
those who expect to get something by
it. The community would look compla-
|
vulsion should set him to sweeping the
streets tomorrow, would consider him,
indeed, quite rs important in the last
occupation as in that of raking his
heaps higher In other words, it is the
wealth itself that is important, if there
is any Importance in the case. The man
who owns it may be very unimportant.
In fact, if he is content to be merely its
owner, he is sure to be so.
The only way to create distinction
with wealth is by the use. What man
does with what he has determines the
question Of his obscurity. The world is
very Just and forgets all but its bene-
factors. The millionaire who uses his
millions for his own benefit is like the
officeholder who uses his Office for his
own benefit, or the man OF genius who
exhausts his genius for his own selfish
ends, or, indeed, like any man who, en-
| bowed with trust, uses the trust for his
own exclusive use and behoof.
Men possessed of other trusts are not
as ant to make this mistake as the mel
possessed of money. Genius, intellec'
{ tual power, high spiritual gifts, we are
| | all loud to claim are conferred for the
good of humanity. We stand ready t6
condemn relentlessly the men who, en-
{ lowed with such gifts, use them mainly
+ for their own advantage. But grea
= wealth, especially if man has himsel
= won it, is less apt to be considered
T trust. The greed for it is great. 1t Il
Y often sought not for itself, but for TIT
o supposed distinction it confers. Whei
Y the young man of energy and ambition
looks forward to the attainment OF 1t "a
the end of his endeavors, he is not LEI
by any misery desire for money IN II
self. He has rather the nobler desire O
It winning distinction and Importance b.
its possession. 1t is a means and no
q AN end. Pity he should i'll the years
d his pursuit so often change his notion
J. for his first opinion is right. Wealt
can confer distinction. 1t can brln
Q honor and high consideration. IL ca
d make o mans memory fragrant wit
d blessings for centuries. But to do al
this it must be used.
n There are millionaires in our ow
. country who will neither be remember
10 ed nor cared for 80 days after their cost
3, " funerals. Their passage from anon
n living men will leave no void, for tn
10 stocks and bonds and shares which alon
l. gave them their consequence remain
d Mankind has lost nothing. misses notf
if ing. There are others who will be miss
y ed in 1 900 places and by thousands
4 hearts, for though the millions remain
le the heart that made the millions bless
'e ing is gone. The man in this case is io'
id to us. and he was more than his none.
r There are again some few who SO oil
10 nose of their thousands that their name
ut and memories are linked for years. Il
I'd centuries, to the monuments OF bene
Or icence they leave behind them, famo'
IN the land over, not for their wealth. D'
er for the good deeds their wealth was use
ne for. The millionaire is nothing, his IN
s. portance nothing, his consequence noti
tn ING. We want to know what ne DO
OF | al. L;s millions before we care 10 r