Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-26
TIME TO COUNT A MILLION.

tamn,atinp the .billion- dollar con- eress.' We think it terrible that such things can be.
 As a matter of fact, we have no more conception af what the term "b1lllon implies than we have of the meaning of the eternity. "A billion," however, has become so common a phrase re- gently that we all should know some thing about it's real significance. So we will now have a little lesson on ..the billion.'' Before proceeding will some one in the class kindly loan us $1,OOO,OOO,OOO with which to make the demonstration plain? Bring the amount right up to the desk. What! No one' has s1,OO0,O0O,O GOO with him? Very well.
 Then let the class count up to 1,OOO,- OOO,OOO, counting at the rate of 70 to the minute. We will all count togeth- CT. It will be only q little task. Let us count twelve hours a day and rest on Sundays. At the end of fifty-one years we shall not have completed the task. But think how much we shall have learned about 100000 GOO! We will, then, consider that we have counted up to 1,OOO,OOO,OOO, and that it is now the fall of A. D., 1852 We are u, but there is one satiSfactfon:
 Charles M Schwab. the head of the Steel trust, began with salary of $1,- 100000 a year about the same day you and I began to count 1.OOO. .OOO. .OOO. We have counted 1.OOO,OOOOOO. but Mir Schwab, high salaried as he is, has not yet earned $1 ,OOO,OOO.OOO, nor will he have done so until A. D. 29O1. So that iS S0ma consolation fo,.
 Perhaps even yet you do not compre- hend the enormity of these nine ciph- CTS With the ''1'' before them.
 Well, can you understand an illus tration made by that useful but weighty article of finance, the silver dollar?
 This coin weighs about an ounce. and is about one and d half inches in diameter.
 One billion nice.a new silver dollars placed side by side, their milled edges touching. would stretch-how far do you think?
 Oh. merely a matter of 23,656 miles!
 About equal to the circumference of this earth! Quite fair-sized silver belt. eh?
 Take this same $1. OO,OOO,0OO in sill yer or, if you can get it, another one. and stand them on their edges. one on top of the other. You will then have ten piles each stretching from the earth to the sun. and,,a few thousands left over to allow for loss.
 Perhaps, having so much money, ana not being a miser, you may desire to do some good with it. What can be nobler. then. than to use it to give employment to your fellow-men? I nf h,,;1 Jo, start force of able-bodied men at some useful labor. We can get all we want at S2 per day. In fact, we can keep exactly 16GG,666 at work for just one year before our $1 ,OO0, ,OOO.- GOO is gone!
 This year is done, and at last we have got rid of that mass of money.
 So we will take little light exer- else by way of recreation. Let us practice running.
 In short time. being very clever. we have achieved the triumph of beat ing the worlds record, with is min ntes 12 seconds to the mile. Our ambition. nurtured by dealing in large figures. is by this time very great so we will start to run long distance for record.
 Let us attempt to cover LOGO, ,OOO,- GOO miles, running twenty four hours a day and resting only on Sundays. Ger tainly, that will not take us long!
 No. not so very long-only about thirty years!
 This being done. it will be time to think about going to work again. We ought to get a salary of $1O a day easily. So we shall have no trouble to accumulate a large sum-$1 .O0O, ,OOO, GOO for nest egg in our old age.
 This goal we shall have reached (tak- ing no vacations) in exactly 333, 333 years and four months. l But we must do something with all this wealth. We cannot let 1t lie idle. We should emulate the examples of great men-say of Andrew Carnegie, for instance. He will have completed his life-labor some time previous to our retirement from active business, and monuments to him in the form of pub- lie libraries will meet our gaze on every hand.
 So let us. too, put up fine buildings, something like that beautiful struc- ture, the Pulitzer building, which Is an excellent model
 Let's see-that's pretty expensive building, isn't it? Yes, our $1,OOO, 100000 will not build many like it-only about 500! But even these will make fair amount of monuments.
 Of course $1 GOO, GOO 900 would bring you quite an Income if you were to in- vest it cleverly. At per cent per year 1t would net you $40, ,OOO,OO0 You could live quite comfortably on that sum, couldn't you?
 Think how long 1t would take any 1 one else to acquire it! Think, for in stance, that Adam, if he had begun on the day. he, was created. at $5 q day, would now in the year of grace 1901, be still only poor man, perhaps | millionaire a few times over, and with no pfospect of plilne up the coveted I billion dol1afS lfhttl, 0de H66yyears from | u6t IT Tn q01:6dTs A. Dl Poor Adami I A1 lseM Fork pUsad.