Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-12-16
Discovery That BewiIdered EIihu
Roots Father-in-Law.
Salem n. Wales Was AstonIshcd "
Find That He Was = millionaire
and Didn't Know How
to Act.
BY {. j.. EDWARDS.

A delightful character was Salom
Il. Wales, father-in-law OF ElihuI Root.
Republican candidate for mayor OF
New York IN 1875 and In bis day ore
Of the foremost citizens OF thf me-
tropolis. 1t used to be his ctst0m
on each New Years day to 60 hbost
among HIS friends and say to them /
Have l done anything in the Year,
Just ended to offend or annoy your
II / have want TO ask your paFdoAa
| for, after all, friendship Is OF morel
value to man than money
One day In the autumn Of 1901 n
met him as he was leaving the Office
Of safe deposit company. in whose
vaults, he was In the habit OF telling
his friends, he kept his modest pos
sessions. There was perplexed,
look upon his face as he greeted me-,
took me by the arm and led me aside.
Il have just had most extraordinary
experience" he confided Il feel a.
little bewildered. l don't know exact
ly how to act have just made tho
discovery that am millionaire"
congratulated him. For a mo-
ment he looked dreamily beyond me.
Then he continued:
Il remember that two or three
years ago very good friend OF mine.
who had finally succeeded in getting
his second million dollars, told mo,
that the first million was by far tho
harder Of the two to get. Undoubt-
eddy 1t was with him, and maybe ~
is with most men who get million
and more, yet with me the million
was net hard to get at all, and until .,
few minutes ago had no idea that 7
would ever be millionaire.
"You know OF Tom Acton, the old
notice commissioner who broke up
the draft riots in New York In 1857
Well. when he lost his place In the
sub treasury, where he went some
time after the war was over. some Of
his friends decided to organize forI
him little bank uptown; Tom
thought there was chance for .
bank to do good business up there IN
looking after small accounts. l was
appealed TO and subscribed for block
of stock and with Tom Acton as pres
Ident the bank did comfortable lit-
tic business for number of years.
Then along comes Charles w. Morse
organizing chain of banks In New,
York city. He wants that little bank
of ours In the worst way, and he off,
fers what seems to all OF us prepos-i
IL, ,f< ma
cept his offer. My, but 1t was 81
mighty bigA sum that got for thel
stock which l subscribed for simply
to help Tom Acton out. The annountI
almost made my head swim. n
To-day came down to the safe de-i
post company to place in my box
with my old securities the ones
bought with the money received for
my bank stock When started toi
do that said TO myself: Count every-i
thing and see how much you have
got So began counting and be-
fore could realize 1t. hardly had
told OF q million dollars In gilt-edged|
securities, and have been bewildi
cred ever since
II wonder II other men have felt,
when they found they were worth OIL
as ] do now" continued Mr.
Wales, after another dreamy pause. I'll
don't believe am pulled up. used
to think that If / ever became q mfli
lionaire / should do some strutting.l
but, to tell you the truth, feel hum-
bled. / don't think ever realized sol
strongly that contentment with what
ever you have is really riches as \
did when ] made the starting discov-
cry that i am a millionaire. And II
didn't feel a bit .richer--1 was going
to say not half so rich---as did
when first realized that with about
quarter, of million dollars had ac-
enough money to take care
Of my family and myself comfort
ably"
Copyright, 1910. by e. J. Edwards An
~ Rights Reserved.)