THE MISERIES OF MONEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9223, 30 April 1908, Page 2

THE MISERIES OF MONEY.

ENOUGH AND TO SPARE. ("Evening Standard") It is hi vain that ordinary mortals exercise their grains to decide "how much is enough.' \ More interesting will bo the Chancellor of the' Exchequer s estimate of the irreducible minimum, when ,ie comes to elaborate his scheme for old-age pensions. The men with the power to make money are not to be governed by any newspaper correspondence setting a- figure which they shall not pass. Someone has proposed to do that in America by legislative enactment, but the " get-rich-quick party there is still busy. To an eminent lawyer whose nealtn. showed signs of breaking a physician advised more recreation. Kecreation I" was the answer. Can you suggest anything more interesting tnan tne making of £20,000 a year? Who could have persuaded greedy, grasping Russell Sage that enough is as *ood as a feast? Who oould have induced Jay Gould to recognise that there may be a higher joy in life than the accumulation of wealth merely for wealth's sake? The multi-millionaire, who rises early and late takes rest, and 'eats the bread of carefulness, that he may have every faculty free for the multiplication of money, is one with the miser who starves to stitch sovereigns and notes into his dirty coat. MAGNIFIED MILLIONS. " Why work so hard?" said Sergeant Ballantine to the future Lord Brainpton. 'You can't take your money with you and if you^ could, it would melt.' 5 'it is probable that Lord Brampton was a good deal more benevolent in life than was commonly supposed. His "carefulness" was the subject of many a joke at . the n Bar, where it was believed that he was worth a million of money. But it is the habit of us all to exaggerato the wealth of our contemporaries. Ballantine was supposed to have made his "pile," and the £10,000 fee which he received for going to India was regarded as crowning ft very handsome fortune. Be that as it may, he. ran through all lie possessed, and only the kindness of friends enabled him to pass his latter days in. comfort. Was not the wealth of Mr Beit overestimated? Mr , Stead believed that there existed /a Beit banknote for every sovereign possessed by Cecil Rhodes; but the Beit will is against him. Barney Barnato Avas not nearly so wealthy as many people thought. As a fact, he lost three million storling in th© slump of 1595. and he was .a dead man before he could seriously attempt to recoup his losses. THE WOES OF WEALTH. I® the very wealthy man happy? Mr Carnegie is too busy in disposing of his gains to have time for melancholy; but Mr Rockefeller certainly has none too gay a time. Jay Gould's life was a long agony of fear; misfortunes beggar him, he feared, lurked ever ahead. There is higher authority than his for the saying that the custody of great wealth is not lightly to be desired. " The care of two hundred million dollars," said Cornelius Vanderbilt, " is too great for any brain or any back to boar. It is enough to kill a. man. ' There is no pleasure to be got out of it as an off-set — no good of any kind. I have no real gratification of any sort more than my neighbour who is worth only half a million." This is like Lord Lytton's mournful review of his Vice-regal experiences in India, or Bismarck's poignant comment upon the bloodshed and misery which his career as a statesman had entailed upon Europe. Poor, poor plutocrats!