WHAT MEN HAVE DONE FOR MONEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1915, 3 August 1888, Page 32

WHAT MEN HAVE DONE FOR MONEY.

Many strange things have been done for wagers, though in these matters other elements than the money motive often weigh. A hundred guineas was the wager competed for in a walking match from Hyde Park Corner to Hammersmith, between Mr Perm and the Hon. Danvers Butler, on which occasion the Duchess of Gordon, in retort; upon some one who had expressed regret that a young fellow like Perm should be always playing some absurd prank, said: " Yes, it is a pity, but why don't you advise him better? Perm seems to be a pen that everybody cuts and nobody mends." A similar sum was won in 1724 by a noted maker of fireworks named Austin, who undertook to cook a big pudding 10ft below the surface of the Thames. Ho accomplished the feat by putting the pudcing into a large tin vessel, which he enclosed in a sackful of. lime, and then Jet sack, pan, and pudding clown to the required depth near Rotherhithe. After t\vo hours and a-halfs baking the pudding was hauled up out of the water and eaten with much relish, the only fault that, was found with it being that it was a trifle overdone. Another sum was won (early in the reign of George III) by a gentleman who wagered that he would •jump into water 7ft deep with all his usual clothing on and undress himself completely. He did it easily. More than £1000 was staked on another curious exploit in connection with the Thames. A butcher crossed the river from Somerset Stairs to the Surrey side in his wooden tray, and 70 boat loads of spectator witnessed the feat. liichard Jenkins, a York merchant, paved 100 square yards with stone in nine hours for a large wager. The money risk was certainly great when a gentleman wagered that he would stand on London Bridge fora whole day with a tray full of genuine sovereigns and offer them at a penny each and not sell one. Report says that he won his bet, passers-by believing him to be a cheat. It is related of Sir John Throgmorton that, for a wager, one June morning in 1811, he bad two of his Southdown sheep shorn, the wool washed, carded, slubbed, roved, spun, and woven, the cloth scoured, fulled, tented, raised, sheared, dyed, and drefsed, and at 6.^0 p.m. the. same day he wore the wool converted into a dresssuit at dinner !

Of eating, drinking, fasting, gambling, and the like, we need not. particularly speak in our instances of what men have clone for money ; nor is it necessary for us to dilate upon* tho terrible experiences of thos-c who have made the misfortunes or vices of others the pivot on which to work money -grinding operations. 'Hush money is by no means a currency solely confined to sensational novels. There are plenty of traders in family'

skeletons in real life. Perhaps the most notable incident of this nature with which we have been made acquainted in recent times has been that of a gentleman of bigh position who was socially ruined by a person who traded upon the possession of some secret information of a dubious character regarding the gentleman's wife. To silence the assailant many sums of money had been paid, but the demands increased to such an extent that they could be borne no longer, and a public exposure followed, resulting in the sudden disappearance of the lady and the collapse of a distinguished career. Confidential servants and discharged valets often wring large sums from their former employers under threat of disclosing secret matters, and it needs more moral courage than many men possess to defy these miscreants.

i Men will always continue to do daring, foolish, and out-of-the-way things for money, ami Hie strife for wealth is not likely to be abated. It will assume different conditions and aspects from time to time, but tbe race after riches will never cease. Those who are philosophers enough, however, to separate themselves from the general Mammon worship may console themselves with the reflection made by an observant writer, who 1 has said, " Any man not absolutely an idiotcan amass vast sums of money who applies his energies eolely to that end. ' The merest beggar who has youth on his side to start with, and sets himself resolutely to make as much, and to spend as little as possible, is pretty sure, if he be spared till threescore years and ten, to have laid up a great treasure." Morality may not always accompany money-getting, but experience shows that it is still more likely to be absent from money-spending.