Millionaire Working Construction on Railroad

1900

Some people were startled recently by the news that in the survey corps engaged in the construction work for the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway Company, working for $1.50 per day, is a reputed millionaire, or perhaps a multimillionaire. He is Bertram Bell, the son of a wealthy capitalist of New York, who died recently, leaving a large fortune, variously reported from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000, to his son, who left the luxuries of his metropolitan home and came out West to enter the surveying corps just to learn the business.

It must be admitted that in these days when the sons of our multimillionaires are so partial to golf and polo as a means to develop a robust body, it is somewhat of a shock that one of them should be so unconventional as to choose a chain and transit instead of a curved stick or a champing steed. But such happenings as this are a good augury of a better future. It is good for Mr. Bell and the world in which he moves that he has the hardy manhood to break away from the enervating environment of wealth and pleasure. He has dignified his rank and station which are falling rapidly into disrepute because they have been made disreputable by the idle and predatory rich.

No sane human being envies a man of wealth. One should even admire him, if his wealth be honestly won, for genuine success of any kind is worthy of admiration. Bertram Bell proves to be an exception, but as yet the exception is by no means rare. Every large city and some smaller ones present instances wherein young men have taken their father's name and undertaken their father's business burdens, and by so doing have inherited a richer possession than their father's wealth. They have succeeded to the honor and esteem in which their sires were held among men.

It is true there are many contrasts to these careers, and the contrasts are perhaps the more numerous. But when the young and idle men of wealth know and experience the contempt in which the world holds them they may not be quite insensitive to the world's bad opinion. It is our duty not to keep them in ignorance.

—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 6.