The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-25
TROUBLES OF THE RICH.
IRON the London Spectator

lETOm the LOQQOn SPECTATOR
Fifty years ago, though incomes had
for some time been swollen by the
profits of trade and manufactures,
man who derived 10000 year from
land or secure investments was still
accounted rich. Lord Beaconsfield, then
Mr. DisraeI. and one of the keenest
observers of society who ever existed.
fixed the figure even lower, declaring
ment, 28,000 year without drawbacks
was a veritab1e Aladdin's lamp. Wealth
now begins with 100000 a year. nor
will the possessor of that formerly
splendid income feel, IL he lives up to
his position, free from care about
money as If he were really rich When
he has paid for his country house, with
it's modern garden and hired shoot
ings," for his London house and its
occasional entertainments, for his wife's
and daughters dresses, for a fair
for six weeks in the year, and for an
annual trip to the continent, he will
find that the amount of free money
left to crafty his personal tastes is
very little indeed.
He does not. in fact, feel the freedom
which is the grand advantage of
wealth; perhaps it's sole advantage as
compared with competence, still less the
sense of complete exemption from pecu-
MARY anxieties. He has not a pound
too much. even if he is a fair manager
and will find that he has to avoid many
expenses which his richer neighbors in
cur almost without thinking, and that
he is not reckoned over any wide coun-
tryside as a man of very large means.
He will not have to live quietly, or to
keep himself nota bly, out of the usual
routine of his rank, but the new pros
perity of the country has altered the
scale of everything. all luxuries have
increased enormously in cost, though
necessaries have not, and at the end of
the year he will begin to think whether
this or that outlay could not be econo-
n1ized.
Suppose Mr.. Semi-Croesus has made
or Inherited what used to be the mag
nificent sum of half a million sterling,
he will find it very difficult out of bust
ness to invest at per cent for though
Americans obtain they do 1t by trust
ing Industrial speculations, which the
average Englishman once out of the
city thinks too uncertain for his chill
drens future We will. however, allow
him per cent, which on half million
is $4,000 a year, that is, 100000 with
the shilling income tax, which is de-
Quoted before the income reaches him,
taken off. He has to buy a town house,
which will cost him 100000, and a coun-
try house and estate in a pleasant
county, which, with the necessary re-
building to suit his special taste, will
run away with $4,000 or fso,0o more.
There is the income of his estate to
be sure. to come to him, but he will
find that when he has paid for repairs
and scolded his bailiff for the losses OH
the home farn-indispensabl BILE. you know
for supplfes-satisfied his tenants COM
plant and paid his rates and his tithes,
and hired the extra shootings his keep
ers are anxious for, and provided for
the upkeep of his park with its lodges
and gates, and. above all, roads, that
income is almost a negligible quantity
Then there are two great houses to be
well furnished scheme in keeping
with his new position, which implies
few good pictures and some marbles.
and many books. all new and paid for
at prices which bear no resemblance to
those they will fetch one day at auc-
ton
He will be fortunate if the bills leave
much Of 100000. that is. he will have
spent in setting up or installing him