Millions Mean Misery.

Western Star, 8 May 1908, Page 4

Millions Mean Misery.

■TJbLLi PJLTIFUJL OF THK !U(JeiES;T .W.OMtAiY JLJN THK W.OKLd)

Mrs Hetty Green, the richest, woman on earth, who has a fortune estimated at over -■ <mi-,000, , U , U0, and an income of"? thirty shillings a initio ute tor every hour, asleep or awake, of her life, has recently made a great discovery—that millio\ns mean misery.

•From her childhood, for, forty year;* she lias lived ami Wiled for one thing.—unoney. To make money, to save money, to invest to, hide)

money—never to spend money save C7l tlie absolute necessities of life, never to take pleasures wiih it. never to do any manner of kiindness or act of charity with it—this has been the rulfeig passion of this unfortunate ;woman. ■Pity her '. She needs it. She has never known the real delights and possibilities of money. Money was made to si>end, to exchange for things that give greater satisfaction ■than- the mere possession of the coin. It was never intended that it shouJd i* hoards*! in cellars and vaults. And wise woman that she is in many things, Mrs Hetty Green has taken ol.'er forty years to learn the. lesson.

Pity her folly ! She has amassed tons of' money, and has never known it he proper way to use :*. It is said that she has never brought the light of happiness into a single child'* ifaoe by giving that child a penny to spend on tollee. She has never experienced the delights that most women find in purchasing new hats and dresses. Her '•'Bargains" have been "corners" and Stock' F/.xchange panics with bankruptcies and lockouts in their train. J't is said that she has never won a warm place in the heartdf any man whom she has lifted from starvation by a. few paltry coins, for she has spurned the pleadings of the poor The hospitals may overflow, patients may die for lack of attendance or be cause the. authorities cannot n'Terd to place them in the empty beds. The subscription list, it is st.iifc.*>J, has never borne her na.me—not even for a guinea. And now, when old n«t» is fast approaching her, when ••.!',• ouid write a cheque for =CI 1,00>»,000, sue has paused in her money •yrabbiug career, and looked back.on her miserable wasted life. Siie is lire,! if money-making. She wants happiness, but'finds i't harder ro gain than ail her eleven miliums.

jNJ.ck Mel ly (Jwii's l.itir-it plan !.s to shut u|*» her grand hossj in ltd it 3 moi'u and to go buck i > I h-t lit; •(> cottage where she was I or:i and lived as a chilli, where she was \ otuig and pretty ami right-hearted. I; is probably the only tiling- sh 3 i\jmi\n|-iers ■which has a gleam of happiness aliout it —apart from hoarding mon-jy. It is only a little house ; ( n Vtrattkboro, just the same as the workmen inhabitants of the town occupy w'th their wives and families, and it had t>een (empty and neglected for so long ■that it had no windows, its doers hung- on broken hinges, and its floors irvere worn and sagging. Children Would not pass the place at night, declaring that tlue house was haunted. But the richest woman on earth has had it repaired, had it made to appear, as it looked forty years: ago, and has gone to live there.

Her idea isjto regain, by living in ffche old surroundings and amongst •the scenes cf her happiest days, a ' lov© of Jife and its sweetest and dear est pleasures—the joys that money cannot buy. Will she succeed ? ■And she's seeking old memories, old loves, old hopes, and. old ambitions in a workman's cottage, she, tho richest woman on earth ! She, poor" dreame,!-, is seeking the joys that flew away forty years ago when tho love of money crawled Unto tier -heart. Be glad, reader, that if you are poor you are more light-hearted .than she, and. hope that you will never know the miseries that come with millions.