Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-02-03
aTHINGs MONEY Will NOT BUY

In a series of thumb-nail sketches
that Rev Madison G. Peters is writing,
especially addressed to women, but
just as applicable to men, he dwells
on the fact that money is not a nee
essary element in happiness, that
only too frequently great wealth is the
companion OF great misery, that in
the homes of the enormously rich
there is frequently an absence of the
happiness that converts the humble
homes of the poor into veritable rein
carnations of Paradise on earth. Per-
haps the lesson is one that needs
stressing in these days when the
yearning to be rich, and the persis-
tent efforts to emulate the Svays and
the fashions of the rich by those Of
moderate means ere doing so much to
produce unhappiness, financial dis
tress, and frequently crime and vice.
The numerous divorce cases among
the rich the GOulds, the Vanderbilts
the Belmonts, and numerous other
families that are so loaded with ac-
cumulRtions Of wealth that to expend
/ their Ordinary incomes appears almost
impossible, demonstrate only too clear
ly that happiness is an elusive bless
Ing not to be seduced by a display of
the pOmp of place or the gorgeous lux
uries that money buys, that happi-
ness has its springs within the heart
and is utterly Independent of exterior
circumstances AS Cotton wrote
II solid happiness we prize,
4 Within our breast this jewel lies,
And they are fools who roam;
The world has nothing to bestow;
II
flow.
But to get back to DR.. Peters and
what he has to say In telling of things
money will not buy, he writes:
/ How many homes there are where
| poyerty's pinch has never been felt.
where sickness has never paid a visit
and yet where a skeleton, more grim
! than death, haUnts the hearth and an
ache shaper thapHconsumption's tooth
| gnaws at the heart In many a palace
there are sneers where there should
| be smiles, and the press Of business
! and social duties make short answers
/ necessary where there should be low
| ing kindness.
You cannot build your happiness
! upon mere social position. Many wo-
men are unhappy, because their homes
/ ike
them to be, and think if only by some
stroke of what is called good luck
/ they could live in a finer house and
/ move in what is called higher socie-
/ ty," they would be completely happy.
What a mistake! 1t takes more than
! palaces to bring happiness. Any one
familiar with the stories Of marital
miseries as reported in the daily di-
/ ~
! readily believe what is a fact. that
in many palatiaI mansion there have
been more scalding tears wept than
those that rolled down the cheeks OF
Josephine.
If the sobs of unhappy womanhood
could break trough the $4,000 tapes
tried walls, those sobs would come
along like the simeon of the desert
You can hear in the rustling of the
silk over the $4,000 rugs the hiss OF
! adders that follow in the wake.
\ X
No matter how much money YOU
have, it will only bring you nearer 20
/ some Weather neighbors sheer. No
matter how fine things you have, there
are others who have them finer, and
| the woman who marries for money
! will find that her life will be one of
gllded misery and her old age will be
like a crag on the beak side of a desert
mountain, where cold moonbeams
sometimes glitter, but no sunshine ev-
er falls, no flowers bloom, no birds
sing, but wild storms howl and hoarse
thunders roar. And through the
sweeping storm shall be heard Gods
stern voice: Your riches are cor
rupted, your garments are moth-eaten,
your gold and silver are cankered
and the rust Of them shall be a swift
witness against you and eat your flesh
as it were fire