Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-08-31
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS
OLD MoNEYBAGs is BOTH A PLu.
TOCRAT AND PAUPER.
He Has Amassed Great Wealth and
Lost All That Was Best
In Him.

Dun and Bradstreet rate him rich.
His name works magic at the bank
His check is good for millions. His
vaults are stuffed with stocks and
bonds But his dollars have an actual
value of five cents each.
He is bloated with riches and with
ing in poverty-he's a plutocrat and
pauper at the same time.
Fate has made an ass of him-she
has given him all the cash he asked
for, but she omitted the formula that
gives it value
He has the lock, but he can't find
ne key-he doesn't know what to do
sith his money
He is a lineal descendant of King
Midas-he learned the golden touch,
but he can't control its power. In
his n dness for millions he has trans
muted all the realities of life into use
less trash.
He placed his springtime in the
minting press-he turned all his hopes
and all his visions into coin-stamped
all the tenderness out Of his heart
and milled the peace of his soul.
Year by year he went on amassing
wealth and just as steadily losing all
that was best in him. All that was
kindly-an that was joyous-he turned
to dross.
Now in his silver age he is yearn-
ing for his golden youth.
There is an ache that he doesn't I'M
derstand-a hungry hole in his breast
where cody heritages shriveled and
died from disuse.
He can't enjoy himself-he isn't
trained for the job.
His rapacity destroyed his capacity
to comprehend the big message.
He owns a yacht, but it's a drifting
argosy with dead sails-with all his
wealth he can't make 1t carry him
into the land of dreams.
He can't see-he can't hear-greed
has dulled his eye-made him color
blind-none of the wonders of life
has meaning.
For him the mountain SUBMITS are
bare-the flowers have died on the
slopes and the north winds have
locked the brooks and silenced the
waterfall.
He is a man without illusions-a
moral cripple-a Croesus starving in
his treasure vaults.
When you were wrapping yourself
in ideals, he was rapping our ideas.
You have only sold your services
he has put every drop of his blood in
to the market-and the joke of it all
is that he had to wait until winter be-
fore he found that every dollar is not
the same size-that its purchasing
power varies with the individual
He has overpaid. No man gets out
of existence more than his legitimate
allotment. If he gains in one direc-
ton, he loses a compromising some
thing in another way.
The price of the kings crown is
heaRy with heartache. The meanest
subject in his kingdom can marry as
he wills, but the mightiest Of mon
archs must mate at the dictate of the
state.
The embezzler defaults with prop
erty that be did not earn, but from
that moment every hour of every day
is haunted with the dread of detection.
The roisterer INDUCES himself in
every within and wflfulness, but set
ties the bill when his wasted vitality
exposes him to disease against which
the continent man has stored suff-
cient energy to defend himself.
Old John Moneybags has the price
of every form of enjoyment, but he
can't locate the trails that lead to
happiness.
1t isn't the size of mans roll, but
the size of mans soul that counts
Woman's World.