Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1913-10-10
DENIED ONE PLEASURE
HANDICAP THAT is THE ACCOM-
PANIMENT OF RICHES.
Possessors' of Great Wealth Debarrcd
From Owning Anything That ls
Difficult to Acquire-Joy He
Is Doomed to Miss.

Great wealth takes away as many
things from man as it brings him, as
serts William Frederick Dix in the
New York Independent. The man of
many millions loses one of the great.
est pleasures in life-the Zest of own
ership, that sense of satisfaction which
comes with the possession Of some
thing which has been longed for and
finally acquired with difficulty.
If something that one possesses can,
If lost or broken, be at once replaced
without the expenditure of anything
that can be missed, it necessarily has
no value, because whether it is lost or
not is immaterial. +,
This is a perfectly simple law of hui
man nature working automatically and
universally. The value Of possession
depends upon the sacrifice required 10
obtain it and the difficulty Of replacing
it. The only exceptions to this are the
things of no intrinsic worth, such as
heirlooms, tokens of love, or souvenirs
with sentimental associations. Those
are precious but not valuable The
3,
life that lure the unwealthy-clothes,
toys, books, furniture, pictures, mo-
tors, yachts and so on-cannot bring
with them the full joy of possession to
the man who has but to stretch out his.
hand to take them.
The fascination of the jewelers. win
dow are not for him. He can select
~ 1xyfb inc ~ CHI
which he fancies and tuck it into his
pocket without pricing it. His secre-
tary will draw a check for the bill. He
may fancy these jewels, but he cannot
prize them, they have no endowment
Of charm. because they have been &C,
quired without effort and could be re-
placed without the slightest inconveni-
ence. The rich boy has never known
the ecstasy of owning a pushmobile
made out Of a soap box. The JOY of
saving and planning for, and finally
selecting a certain long coveted fish.
ing rod. or canoe, or set of books, can
never come to him.
One might say that the pleasure OF
ownership is only one of degree after
in owning his cottage and the rich
man in owning his railroad. Poets
have for ages sung of the joys of home,
the sweetness OF the hearthside and
the happiness found at the vine clad
cottage door, but have any poets ever
sung the hallowed delights Of owning
chain of rolling mills, or extolled the
jnu ~ 40 he hn
voting control OF railroad system?
How can a man of many millions
conceive of the delights of digging and
planting a little suburban garden,
planning for it winter evenings with
his wife's eager help, buying the seeds
and coaxing them during the radiant
summer days into fruitage, when the
only garden he knows is the vast, for
NAL one on his country estate, planned
and built by the landscape architect,
cultivated by foreign gardeners and
visited by himself for an occasional
after dinner promenade?
It is not his, he merely transferred a
few thousand for the title to it. The
patting lovingly into place of the seeds,
ing and welcoming of the first shy
shoots are not for him. He does not
see the timid thrusting out Of tender
green things in the spring, the dawn
OF fragrant color as the buds open to
the sunshine, and, finally, the full flow
er and fruit, nor feel the pride of IA
therhood, of ownership, of possession
as he looks over his garden. Tony or
Mike or Sam have attended to ali those
details! And what a world of joy, Of
beauty and fragrance, what peace and
content, what a feeling Of triumph
have his millions robbed him of in the
unfolding of that garden!
The man of many millions has been
given many things, but he has been
deprived OF corresponding number OF
things which count in this world.