New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-13
CARNEGIE'S WEALTH.
OTHER INTERESTS NECESSARY FOR HAP
PINEss IN OLD AGE.
MIsouorEp AS TO THE DISGRACE OF DYING RICH
-IILUsTRIoUs AMERICAN EXAMPLES OF
MILLIONS PUT TO GOOD USE.

MILLIONS PUT TO GOOD USE.
fBY CABLE THE TRrBUYE.l
London, May 12-Mr. Andrew Carnegie has
nothing to say about his business affairs except
to express his qualification that the time has
come when he can refuse to make any more
money and devote his leisure to wise admins
traton of his great fortune. While he has been
misquoted in saying that he considers 1t dis
graceful for a man to die rich. he intends to
spend the remainder of his life in carrying out
his own gospel Of wealth.
asked him to-day for a brief statement Of
his views Of the retirement OF rich men from
business and received the following characteris-
tic response:
The Tribune cannot be denied. 1t printed
the first words 1 wrote for publication
Well. there are only two courses for multi
millionaires to follow. Some may feel that, al
though they have plenty to retire upon. they
have very little to retire to. Many men who
retire from business become very unhappy
They have not cultivated other sources Of pleas
ure or occupation. In this case men do not own
the millions, the millions own them, and the
multi millionaire is only slave Such men will.
doubt, be less miserable IL they continue TO
the end and die like Macbeth. with the harness
on their back.
I'VE Americans do not retire so generally as
the Britons themselves, because the Briton. as
rule has hobby apart from his business
He is not half so strenuous a business man as
the American but he has usually intense pleas
ure In his country place, in which he spends
several days a week. He may be an authority
upon gardening; II he goes in for roses his
roses take the first prize In the flower show
One friend I had went In for pigs. He was a
great manufacturer; he had a species OF pig
called after him. 1t does not matter what IL
is. so that it is something He may breed horses
at a loss The principal wine merchant or the
world does So
when such men make competence and ar
rive at years Of discretion-I mean sixty ana
overland retire they have sufficient interest
in other things to give them happiness be-
sides this, there Is wide field of usefulness IN
district OF local public life which l nave oeen
privileged to during my visits paid 10 sew
eral well-known manufacturers in this country
In this way the Briton makes success or ire
No one can call human life a success who does
not so train himself as to enjoy happy, use
full dignifed graceful old age
"Although this course is less generally pur-
sued by the American than the Briton sun
America is not without ilustrious examples.
Take Mr. Marquand; what noble exampie'
He retires from business and the Metropoiitai
Museum is his darling care. Few people III
Nar.yor,e know the debt that the city, yes,
even the country. owes to that retirihs' s'"
c,ous old gentleman Take Mr.. Kennedy, my
fellow-Scot, who retired from business ou'' a'
Nfrs Kennedy told me not long ago. ne Is
buster than ever But busy In what! ABOUT
the PRESBYTERIAN Hospital. about the coming
+ba Charities
and many other such institutions. Take MT
1esun. look at the Museum of Natural his
tory or which he is president. and over which
be watches with fatherly care. Take Seth Low
ubo had q large business, which he left 10 as
suua the presidency of Columbia University.
roke CbarIes Stewart Smith; see how ne leads
a happy and useful life. ~
n>, oil those men have not as their lite
work miserable aims which end with sell
1hav are Iaboring for the good OF others l
could mention other names. but these sufhce TOT
u,,strations The question is whether SUCH d
aracefu, ending of l.fe is not a higher ll1e thah
that nursued by men who have 1ar srea'ei
for.rnes than any OF these but neVerthe'es''
80 found still immersed in the struggle ioi
more personal gain, the final summons iN''"e
them amid their useless boards from "h'ch 'a''
are torn and which, as ruie' are o
their death in a way that wouiu rouoe
,nd,arot,on u they could look down. Is IL not
.ho nort NJ wisdom then. for millionares 10
devote their declining years to putting 'he'.
otherwise useless millions to some gooo use
pr,,,ant as many of their investments may
have heen. surely such investment Oh '"e"
wealth would eclipse them all
Mr.. Carnegie will go to Scotland on Iuesuay
ona u,u return to America In the autumn,
where he expects to spend the remainder oi
his life distributing his wealth wisely ana car
rving out various plans Of benehcence ana .ak-
ing an active interest in politics he srih,y
saws that his worst enemy Is the man ""o VIII
tell him how to make any more money
'''' '''''' INV I. N,F
MP CARNEGIE'S OFFER ACChr iHD'