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.
Showing posts with label rich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rich. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Talks on American Sunday
1902
Cardinal Gibbons Declares That the Rich Man Desecrates the Day by Newspaper Reading
In his sermon on the American Sunday at the cathedral at Baltimore, Cardinal Gibbons, among other things, said:
"It has been the boast of our country that in no nation of the world was the Christian Sabbath better respected than in the United States, but a close observer cannot fail to note the dangerous inroads that have been made on the Lord's day in this country during the last 30 years.
"The average business man of America is in a state of habitual feverish activity. He rushes through life at full steam. The one aim of his existence is to become rich. Money making is not the means, but the end, of his life. He increases his wealth, not so much for the love of it as from the fascination attached to the accumulation of a fortune.
"On Sunday mornings, as he is debarred from the conventionalities of life in going to his place of business, he seizes the morning paper and devours its contents of 20 or 30 pages, its news of stocks and bonds, or pleasures and amusements, of crime and scandal, until his whole being is saturated with this unhealthy diet. Like animals gorged with food, he spends the morning in a comatose condition."
—The Indiana Democrat, Indiana, PA, Nov. 26, 1902, p. 5.
Cardinal Gibbons Declares That the Rich Man Desecrates the Day by Newspaper Reading
In his sermon on the American Sunday at the cathedral at Baltimore, Cardinal Gibbons, among other things, said:
"It has been the boast of our country that in no nation of the world was the Christian Sabbath better respected than in the United States, but a close observer cannot fail to note the dangerous inroads that have been made on the Lord's day in this country during the last 30 years.
"The average business man of America is in a state of habitual feverish activity. He rushes through life at full steam. The one aim of his existence is to become rich. Money making is not the means, but the end, of his life. He increases his wealth, not so much for the love of it as from the fascination attached to the accumulation of a fortune.
"On Sunday mornings, as he is debarred from the conventionalities of life in going to his place of business, he seizes the morning paper and devours its contents of 20 or 30 pages, its news of stocks and bonds, or pleasures and amusements, of crime and scandal, until his whole being is saturated with this unhealthy diet. Like animals gorged with food, he spends the morning in a comatose condition."
—The Indiana Democrat, Indiana, PA, Nov. 26, 1902, p. 5.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sunday and Monday Beggars
1900
Ian Maclaren Says There Is No Difference
"The pew is a testimony to the family and ought to be maintained with its doors removed, and it does not matter whether a man pays $50 a year for his pew or 50 cents," writes Ian Maclaren of "The Pew and the Man in It" in the Ladies' Home Journal.
"The church authorities should see that the householder has his pew, with room enough in it for himself, his wife and the children which God has given them.
"There is no reason in the world why the rich man should not pay a handsome sum for his church home. And some of us have never been able to understand why an artisan should not give something for his church home also.
"Surely every man wishes to do what is right in the direction of his church. Every self-respecting man likes to pay for his home whether it be large or small, and it touches a man's honor to live in a workhouse, where he pays no rent and depends on the public. There is no necessity that this home feeling and this just independence should be denied in the house of God, but it rather seems a good thing that the man who works and gives to provide a house where he and the children can live together in comfort and self-respect six days of the week should do his part to sustain the house where they worship God on the seventh day.
"He is a poor creature who will allow a rich man to pay his rent for him on week-days, and I have never been able to see where there is any difference between being a beggar on Sunday and a beggar on Monday."
Ian Maclaren Says There Is No Difference
"The pew is a testimony to the family and ought to be maintained with its doors removed, and it does not matter whether a man pays $50 a year for his pew or 50 cents," writes Ian Maclaren of "The Pew and the Man in It" in the Ladies' Home Journal.
"The church authorities should see that the householder has his pew, with room enough in it for himself, his wife and the children which God has given them.
"There is no reason in the world why the rich man should not pay a handsome sum for his church home. And some of us have never been able to understand why an artisan should not give something for his church home also.
"Surely every man wishes to do what is right in the direction of his church. Every self-respecting man likes to pay for his home whether it be large or small, and it touches a man's honor to live in a workhouse, where he pays no rent and depends on the public. There is no necessity that this home feeling and this just independence should be denied in the house of God, but it rather seems a good thing that the man who works and gives to provide a house where he and the children can live together in comfort and self-respect six days of the week should do his part to sustain the house where they worship God on the seventh day.
"He is a poor creature who will allow a rich man to pay his rent for him on week-days, and I have never been able to see where there is any difference between being a beggar on Sunday and a beggar on Monday."
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