The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-01-13
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
Why Brains, Frames and Consciences
Are Strained in Accommodating
Millions.


There seems often TO be such q lacl
Of reasonable human motive in the az
tons Of men commanding large for
tunes, and manipulating financial en-
terprises and movements, that the Curl
osity of the ordinary morta is aroused
This ordinary mortal is. erhaps, en-
gagged in the common struggle of man
kind to earn his own and his fam
llys three meals a day, with some
thing to the good for the condiments
Of life. including his fun, fads and al
truisms, as well as bit over for sick
ness and old age. He looks with as
constituent and perpleNity upon the
group OF old men who, on the crum-
bling brink of the grave, are still
stralnlng their brains, frames and con-
unnecessary millions.
one of these persistent accUmulators,
VINO was also congental miser, was
asked once by friend of ours why he
kept on thus unreasonably piling I'M
needed millions upon millions. You
can't eat them or drink them, YOU
nave have no reason to pile up more
Tor your heirs-Why do you work SO
hard in your old age, gathering them
together" said our friend. The old
miser retorted, Did you play marbles
when you were a bOy?" Yes Did
you keep on winning them?' Yes
Could you eat them or drink them?'
NO. why did you do it, For the
fun of the game" That's why l do
II. triumphantly cried the old fell
low. that's why do it,
The fun of the game" accounts for
2 good deal. But there is another
phase of the matter which continues
to puzzle. How is it that supposedly
honorable men"-often men not with
out a certain chivalry even, and who
are far from being classed by their ac-
4ualntances as among the depredators
Or degenerates-do things in their
junction and capacity of financers
which shook the consciences of the
average decent citizen. 1t is that the
command of great amounts of money,
whether inherited or acquired. has
somewhat the same psychological eff |
feet upon the individual as the being |
born into or being taken into legal |
lied aristocracy? Does it set the in |
1lvldual apart as belonging, as by right |
to caste, an order, a privileged class,
TO such an extent that it gets to he
thought venial Offense to stretch the
laws of ethics g bit in the maintenance
II ones position in this caste. or 70
Increase ones holdings. and Importance
herein? Has not the reader-whom |
We suppose to belong to the natural
)rder OF human ngs-noticed some
hing in the mind OF the very success
III business man that sets him apart?
The old saying that the gods help
hose who help themselves has often
new and dangerous meaning in the
mind of such man.
Enormous and brilliant as are his
nergleS, often his success is so pro-
igal as to astonish even himself. and |
here soon settles upon his conscious
less sense of the beneficence, to him
Yard, OF the unseen, mysterious pow
rs. The gods have helped him. indeed. :
lis God has helped him. He is this
successful person, he be- :
ongs to this peculiar caste of the very
r the preposterously rich, by divine
lght.' In the division OF profits why
hould those be too anxiously and Il
considered by him, who, as
ct, have shown no signs of belonging :
l the divine aristocracy of worldly
lccess and earthly wealth. He under
lands, of course, that those who are
Indispensable to this success of his | Il
lust be taken into account But the
rdinary mortal-well, the ordinary
ortal must take care of himself, even
Tough the favorite of the divine pow e
IS stands in the relation to the or :
nary mortal Of a sworn and confden-
ally trusted trustee Il
Well, there are signs that the or il
nary mortal Is beginning to take care
himself. 1t would seem to be high
England Grocer 2