The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-21
"A HUMAN HOG n

A great deal Is said and written about Russell Sage, the great New York finan- cier, whose life has been devoted to the business of money-making, and wno now, at the age of S7. is as keen on the track of the dollar as he was in his paimiest days. Possibly he has some good traits. as almost every man has. but there is one episode in his life which ought not to be forgotten. It is thus briefly ske.ched in The Portland oregonian:
 confronted in his ofice by a hom!cid lunatic. Norcross. quickly pushed young
 man named Laidlaw between him and bomb. Sage. by the Interpretation of Laid laws body. escaped with slight injury. while Laidlaw was so frightfuily injured of his life. .Laidiaw sued Sage for dam. ages; and Sage. through his counsel. pleaded that he did nothing more than woSid have s S5nG' done; ta. Ra sfIfss aIssw sage had not used his body body as as sAsS shield Id
 Iadsw 'ss ssssna sglss the sosep epS the court of G St. James wso %as coansel sI knowing danger that Laidiaw did not not suspect. was natural but entirely sell nsh desire to save his own life at the ex was bound by every code of Justice and law. We remember the occurrence as 1t was set out in the papers. but had forgotten the particulars as detailed above, and have adopted The Oregonian's account, which Is correct as we now remember the The af ae Oo pensating the man whose life he wrecked in manner that would have been ittle less than murder if Laidlaw had died were so selfish and contemptible that the odor of 1t should stick to him for all time, To save his own life by pushing another into danger may have been done under the impulse of self-defense. and without | time for reflection just as one person will sometimes dodge behind another to avoid danger. and to that extent MT. Sage might plead that he acted without refiec- ton and with no intent to injure another. This plea might avail to take from him any opproprobrium that might have fallen on him, but to resort to the opportunities and technicalities of the law to avoid pay ing something to the man. who had prob ably saved his life was detestable.
 It must be remembered that Sage was very wealthy man. He was a multi-mil- lionaire at the time of the occurrence. He could have paid ten times the sum sued for without the least embarrassment The amount asked for by Laidlaw was a trifie to the millionaire, yet he forced his maimed and helpless victim to 70 into the courts and sue for what was, at best but slight compensation for his inju- ries. No wonder Mir. Choate scored the human hog" as one paper calls aim and avowed that Sages great wealth had blunted his moral sense. It seems to have blunted his humanity and his sens. of justice, Middleton calls avarice that disease of which old men sicken," and Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy" tells us that the rich are indeed rather possessed by their money than posses sors," and Sage evidently belongs to that class.
 And what good does it all do him? If he were the only rich man in existence he might pride himself on maintaining a sort of supremacy among his fellow men, but even this poor pleeAure is u----ed him, for there are thousands of other very rich men in the land. All he gets out of 1t is the sordid pleasure of making money and the low satisfaction of beating others. His is not an example that any good man can follow.