Wealth and Happiness

New Zealand Tablet, 2 August 1906, Page 13

Wealth and Happiness

The death of Mr. Beit, the South AfrL-an millionaire, and the passing away of Mr. Russell Sage, of New York, who was l.nqwn as the Wall Street Croesus, have directed attention to the question, whether great wealth (brings its possessors rmich happiness. Mr. Sage, who died, as we were informed by cable last wees worth £16,000,000, was asked some time ago if the possession of such enormous wealth did'not ma,ke him unhappy. ' I admit,' said he in reply,' I have but one pleasure, and that is to make money. The pleasure is in the naking ; the deal, the risk and the delight of winning. And then— well, I just put the money in the ban* and~look forward to the next deal.' When Mrs. Sage was asked once if her husband was not an unhappy man, with all his millions, she laughed aloud and answered : ' I just think he's the happiest man in New York ; why, he doesn't give himself time enough even to th nk of being miserable. Do you know,' she continued, 'Mr. Sage has always been so busy that he hasn't had time- to look properly around his home. He s Hue the railroad engineer who was so busy that he iraer saw his children except when their mother brought them down to the station to see him go by, and said, " Children, there's para !" The oliher morning Mr. Sage walked around the place like a stranger, ami sudd'ealy turned to me and said, " What a beautiful place this is !" ' 1 A great deal of nonsense is talked about the miseries of millionaires,' said Mr. James J. Hill, one of the world s richest mtn, to an inteniewer ; ' don't you believe it ! You m a y take my word for it that millionaires (and I count a good many of them among my friends) enjoy life just as much as their poorer fellows— perhaps a good deal more than many of them Speaking for myself, 1 can truthfully say that I get more pleasure out of life to-day than when, forty odd years ago, I was .earning a few dollars a week on a Mississippi boat. No, it is not the money that gives the pleasure, although there's some satisfaction in that ; but it is the hard work a nd the planning that go to the ma'cing of it.' Mr. W. A. Clark, the 'Copper King,' simila ly sings the praise of hard work. ■ Take my case ' he said, not iong ago. ' 1 work hard ; I take pleasure in my labors. 1 take pleasure in accomplishing something, in succeeding. It is a pleasure to know that your mind has been a cti\e in the solution of some problems or some commercial treaty, and that success ha.s attended your efforts. I feel as young to-day as though I had just reached mv twentv-fiflh year There is no limit to my canacity for work. Why should I spend my time in idhness vIA-n the world is movine on and on. with giant bounds I.'1 .' I can do good by worUng. Thousands of men and women are depending upon my energies for their bread and butter. How c a n one retnre and suspend operations that mean so much to those -whose future he controls ?' 4i *i* dx J n 'm ni ! nd adn ' itt! nß,' Mr. C. M. Schwab, of the Steel Trust, says, ' (hat when I began to work my great object was to grow rich, I lived for it, I toiled for it, .mst as most millionaires do in their early years. But when the money. came-m o re th an chanS T? W Z hxt t( V d ° wllh ~~ 1»y1 »y v^ws underwent a change. The od incentive disappeared, the money became a secondary consideration altoget-her-an accident -ami I continued to wor'c o -f of sheer love of the S£L? n m , one y; m aking, which, I can assure you, is thf Xiiiii i tlie , last de P ree - The more money I get the harder I work and the more simply I i ive and so far from ber- miserable, I dm't know any man I would care to change places with. No sir a man who is making mone y fast has neither time' nor in clination to be miserable.' The late John I. Blair, who could have written sorption of the work of making it, the pTeaWre of fighting rivals and beating them-aye, tha wa ? rfori pus,' the old man said, with a reminiscent chuckle No man can r-b unhappy whose brain is constantly exercised and whose days pre full of work and when success crowns his efforts he is a most en v fable man That has been my lot, and on looking bad? i wouldn't have had it different.' It may be interesting to add the testimony of a woman.millionaixe, Mrs. Hetty Green, who says : «i

don t think any woman has enjoyed her life more' than I have. I began with £200,000, and for every dollar I started with I have made fifty. Women differ ; one finds her pleasure in society, another in her conquests, a third in family life, a nd so' on ; but not one of them all has foi nd greater happiness than I have in proving that a woman can make millions as well as a man. I haen't found time to be miserable yet.