Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-04-17
Golden Aces

/ Golden Ages.
! Tie reign of Augustus Caesar has
been called by Roman writers of later
days; the golden age 1t was All age
of peace, OF prosperity, of wealth and
luxury in the Roman world 1t usL cred
IN such period of worldly pleasure as
had not existed before Yet it was the
beginning of the end of the Roman
race. Gibbon begins his history of the
decline and fall of the empire a hun
dred and fifty years later, but the fact
is that the empire was rotten at the be-
| ginning of the Christian era. Never
| theless the Romans of that day lived in
happy ignorance of the tendencies of
| their time
The lesson of history thus far has been
that nations best days have always
been its worst days. The statement is
paradoxical, but the paradox is neces-
sary if we accept what, by common
consent in every civilized period Las
been regarded as the most desirable So
cial conditions. The truth is that men
have been mistaken in their belief that
wealth and luxury are good. Nothing
is worth striving for in this world but
character. What a man can add here
to the dignity and grace of his immortal
soul is treasure laid up in heaven.
Wealth gives man an opportunity to
improve his manhood, or to debase it,
but the getting Of wealth, in the way it
is often got,-as Gould and Rockefeller
and the other stock gamblers get it,
destroys whatever character the mill
lionaire had to begin with, and leaves
him without any higher aspiration than
to keep what he has, add to it, and
spend it upon himself and his family in
pleasant to them, would not be so to
people OF better impulses. Then take
another large class of people who have
obtained great wealth honestly. Too
often these have obtained their riches
by depuving themselves of all. oppor-
tunity to obtain anything better. Their
entire life has been devoted to the strife
of money getting; they have not TAX
en- time to read books, to travel except
on business, to study public affairs, ex-
cept when their business interests may
have been affected thereby. Whole
worlds of art, literature, sciences, mu-
sic, are blanks to them. They may
have, perfunctorily, attended church
Sundays, but ten to one they were
thinking over their business matters
during the sermon. They have hardly
taken time during their lives to form
the acquaintance of their wives or chill
dren. When this class of men reach
the goal of their lives by becoming mil
lionaires they usually reach it deprived
of the power to enjoy life in any way
except by eating, drinking aud wear
ing fine clothes. If they attempt tc ;;a.,,-
prove themselves by travel, they find
that their life training has been such
that they are unable to appreciate fine
paintings, fine music, fine acting or to
get that pleasure in visiting historical
places which can come only to one ac-
quainted with history and literature
But the evil effects of the strife for
wealth upon the few who succeed in
getting it are as nothing compared with
the Generalization of the many who
fail in their efforts, and of the multitude
who from want of ability or opportuni-
ty can only look on and envy their
more or less successful neighbors The
wealth ideal is low one, and when an
entire people is besotted by a low ideal
that people becomes an impediment to
real human progress. If barbarism
were not better condition than the
civilization of "the golden age" it is
not to be supposed that Divine Provi-
dence, which watches over the desti
mics of the human race, would have per-
mitted that civilization to breed weak
ness and want of manhood which rem
dered it unable to resist the attacks of
the barbarians who overran it few
centuries later Every condition of
barbarism, and even savagery contains
the germs of evolution into something
better, while on the other hand what
has been called the highest civilization
may be rotten at the core and utterly
irTedeemable The German civiliza-
ton is the best in the world today; it is
as high as any other in what is best, re-
ligion, science, literature, music, art.
1t is highest of all in its patronage of
culture, both mental and physical 1t is
least of all affected by the evils of lux
urious living. Over and above all
others it fosters social life and the
home. Germans, as rule, are easier
satisfied than Englishmen in the acqui-
sition of wealth, and much more in
clined than the latter to use reason
able part of their income as they go
along, in ways that are really benetici-
al to themselves and their families.
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WEBSTER DAVIS insists that it is the
British that violate the white flag, and