The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-11-11
ON The ADVANTAGES
OF Being POOR
(By e. S. GOODHUE, NJ.

(By e. S. GOODHUE, MD, Holualoa)
BY poor | do not mean condition
of Indulgence which is a most unfor-
tunate one for any man in this age
of needs.
| refer to the pecuniary state COM
mon to the majority of us; the stand
ing of nearly every intelligent. able
bodied, respectable professional and
business man.
It was a far-seeing prayer the an
cient prayed:
"Give me neither poverty nor rich
es;" the abject poverty of many in
our great cities where even stealing
by the unavoidably idle is scarcely
blamable; the vulgar display of
wealth by the rich whose pride and
power are flourished in the faces Of
those who have pride but no power.
How can the man who vents bread
to eat fail to hate one WHO wastes
but will not give it?
And how can the rich man fail to
have a contempt for the one who can
not even get enough to save himself
from being hungry?
They do not understand each 9th
err. They never will.
You have heard the wealthy say
with self assurance born of success
ooh, if lost all my money tomorrow
I'd get rich again in a few years. ="
And so, probably, he would.
II fI,nf oil
poverty is the result of bad habits like
drunkenness, extravaganza, and other
forms of dissipation; we cannot and
must not ignore the social fact that
some of the most industrious, saving,
honest and deserving of men simply
fail to get enough together to pay
their necessary bills.
We must not ignore the fact, say,
that many men in health are poor
from no just cause.
do not say that they do not lack
some trait or discipline or tact requis-
tie for the successful operation of bust
ness; they must indeed lack this, but
this essential may not be possible to
the man who needs it.
Our mental and intellectual limita-
lions are very firmly set. It may be
said in passing however, that the
qualities which make up Il good money
maker, are not intellectual; generally
the reverse, and the best and nobest
and most intellectual men of any age
have been VIGOROUSLY improvident.
The man with enough 90 provide a
simple home for his wife and children;
to maintain therein necessary COM
forts; who can pay for a few mex
pensive adornments; who can meet
his necessary bills each month, and
know that he will never be rich and
never very pOor,-he is the happy
man.
The advantages of his middle posi-
! ton must be plain to all If money
had any permanent value, if it devel-
oped character, or could be taken
away and used in another life, it
might be worth making sacrifices for;
but it has no intrinsic value what
ever
It's value consists in the fact that
we can easily get rid of it; that we
may exchange it for something we
can use or somebody else can use.
But we are so constituted that the
more we have of it the more we want,
and economic conditions are such that
the more a man has the more he can
acquire by assiduous acquisitional me-
| thods.
Things work both ways, and the
man with a great deal of money finds
that his whole time is taken up not
only in getting more, but in safe
guarding what he already has.
He loses his taste for anything else
but business" or the acquisition of
dollars and cents.
He begins to love the plans and
schemes and significant details of the
business that makes him richer; he
really believes that he has no time of
all the time God gives him for more
uplifting matters, to give to anything
but his factory. his mines. his sugar
plantations. Is he happy? Does the
final adjustment of life leave him with
a sense of satisfaction?
Will he "come rejoicing bringing in
his sheaves," and say to the good
Lord, Here Master, I have spent ev-
cry moment fthe life you lent me
planning and working how to collect