The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-16
ABOUT LOVE AND POVERTY.

The other day the newspapers told
curiously pathetic little story that IL
lustrated the weakness of human ma
sure so completely that is is worth re-
peating here. In New York there lived
a young couple who were happy, de-
voted to each other, and rich. Through
some mishap the man lost his fortune,
and came home in despair to his wife.
Being a good and sensible woman in
stead of reproaching him for his bad
management. or repining at her fate,
she put her arms about him and said:
Never mind. Charlie. you can get
sob and can cook
And she did. She turned off her
servants, went to live in an humble lit
tie fiat, and did her own work, and
despite their poverty the couple liv-
ed in devotion to each other, and peace
and happiness. After two or three
years of the simple idyllic life, how
ever, the wheel of fortune again turn
ed for the young couple, and they i'll
herited riches. but instead Of being a
blessing they proved a misfortune, for
the husband fell into evil ways, was
untrue to the little wife who had stood
SO noby by him in his evil days, and
the story ended in the divorce court.
Perhaps this story is not so remarka-
able, nor its ending as unexpected as
it seems. for the real test of character
is not in meetingS poverty bravely, but
in bearing riches with equinimity.
Many a man is saved from being
drunkard by lacking the price of
drink, and there is no such cOnserva-
tor to the domestice virtues as for
man having to work so hard all day
he is too tired to leave his own friends
at night Poverty is a great moralist
and our purse as often as our princi-
pies decides our course of action.
The question thus suggested, how
ever, of whether poverty or riches
makes for connubial happiness is an
interesting one. According to the old
adage when poverty comes in at the
door loves flies out the window. but
here is a case where riches come down
the chimney, loves sneaked out the
back stairs, and so the problem is left
unanswered.
Undoubtedly bitter. biting poverty is
a hard test for love to stand. In its
essence even love must be material
When you are hungry you are more
stomach than heart When you are cold
you think more of the temperature of
your body than you do of the temper
AZURE of your affections. When you are
harassed by bills and bounded by
collectors. money. and not sentiment,
fills your waking thoughts and nightly
dreams. Love has to be comfortable so
TO speak, before it can work.
But on the other hand it can be
Emothered to death by too much luxury,
and our common observations, as we'll
9 NJ divorce
go to show that love and married hap
piness are among the luxuries that
no millionaire has money enough to
buy. Occasionally they are his by
chance, but nobody in search Of the
ideal Darby and Joan would hunt for
them in the palaces of the wealthy.
There are many reasons why the
possession of great wealth should tend
to separate people who are married
instead of drawing them together. The
: greatest, in this country is because of
the fact that the American man who
achieves fortune spends the first
part of his life in making it and the
balance in taking care of it. He lives
in q world apart from his wife, whose
interests she does not share. and whose
language she does not speak. He gets
up early, and stays out late. and when
he is at home he is generally too ner-
vous and tired to talk The richer the
man becomes, the nlgner THIS barrier
grows, until the wife of the multi
millionaire finds that she has no hus-
band-nothing but money making ma
chine.
That money brings temptations to
the rich man that the poor man never
knows, goes without saying. In the
first place, if he inherits his money, it
is harder for the camel to go through
the eye of the needle than for him to
escape being married for his posses
sions. Then, married or single, wom-
en- smile upon him who can reward
their glances with Jewels, and flowers
and candy, and so it is that the man
who, had he been poor, would have
been permitted to walk the straight
and narrow path in peace, because he
IS rich finds himself the victim of ad-
venturesses.
Statistics show that the ratio of d.
vorce is much greater in rich and
fashionable society than among the
poor. This does not necessarily i'm
ply, as many seem to suppose any
greater moral laxness among the ricn
than among the poor Take them man
for man, and woman for woman, the
smart set are probably just as virtuous
and with as high principles as the
bourgeoise who criticise them There
is doubtless just as much incompati-
bility of temper and uncongeniality of
taste in green grocery circles as there
IS in banking circles. The only diff
ference is that the green grocer is