In the first place Willie was unfortunate enough to be born, in
which circumstances he was not unique. He was unfortunate also in
the circumstance that he was born of poor, but dishonest parents, of
that class who spend their lives in a useless struggle to keep up
appearances and prevent their poverty being known and talked about.
While Willie was unable to talk, the circumstances of his parents had
no effect on him; when nice people called on his mamma and said how
delighted they would be to see the baby, he was playing on the floor
in one garment and none the less happy that he had no clothes fit to
be seen in and that the nice people had to be told things that were
not--that he was out with the nurse, or asleep or ill. He was fortunate
in this.
By and by Willie grew to an age when his surrounding circumstances
began to impress him more or less, and one of the first impressions he
received was that his parents went to a horrible amount of trouble to
appear better off than they were.
When Willie began to go to school he had come to several conclusions
about things and one of the conclusions he had come to was, that if
people took so much trouble, as he saw his parents do, to appear well
off when poorly off, it must be, if not absolutely wrong at least a
grave fault, to be poor, and a fault to be ashamed of, which of course
it is.
Consequently, Willie argued, it is a man’s first business to become
well off. Seek first dollars and all things shall be added unto you.
Many children have this idea and some never get over it, Willie never
got over it.
Willie heard that “anything can be bought,” that “every man has his
price,” that “a man’s best friend is his money,” and a great many other
equally wise and true saws.
So it came about quite naturally that Willie set the dollar up in his
mind as something to be venerated, and overlooked the fact (quite
naturally too) that the dollar is a means to an end not an end.
Willie’s parents were of the opinion that the next best thing to having
dollars is to make a bold pretense of having them and Willie was too
young to criticize their judgment.
Willie’s father was of the opinion that the most important thing to
attend to in this life was the getting of more dollars than you need,
and that next in importance to that was the adding to your surplus.
Willie saw that his father was a failure in his own eyes and he saw the
mighty struggle he made to hide his failure.
Willie was unfortunate in being bright enough to observe these things
and not bright enough to judge wherein they were poor philosophy.
When Willie was old enough he went into a broker’s office and there he
observed that a great many were the same kind of people as his pa and
his ma, and he made up his mind that he had to become rich to escape
the miseries that trying to be SOMEBODY on NOTHING entailed.
Willie had youthful inclinations, but the fear of poverty had been so
drubbed into him that he curbed all such, promising himself that he
would follow them when he got rich.
Ten years with the brokers gave Willie no liking for the business or
affection for his employers, but he never dreamed of risking having
idle time on his hands earning no money by throwing up a sure thing for
an uncertainty.
He thought of marriage at this time, but put the thought aside by
promising himself the joys of a happy marriage when he got rich. His
close attention to business and saving and cautious ways gave him a
high place in the estimation of his employers, who now and then “let
him into good things” and Willie’s bank account began to swell and his
heart to shrink. He had never set up in his mind a definite figure to
represent riches, but he had an indefinite idea of something in the
neighbourhood of a million or so. Time did not wait for Willie to get
rich, it sped on. Willie became a partner in his firm, became worth a
million, two million, three million. He buried the other members of his
firm, settled with the widows cheap and became “THE FIRM” worth more
millions. He forgot all about youthful pleasures, all about marriage,
all about life, all about death, all about everything but dollars;
dollars claimed all his time and thought, everything became trivial
except dollars. Instead of Willie owning the dollars the dollars began
to own him.
Close attention to the business of caring for, watching and nursing
dollars for so long a time at last told so on Willie’s health that he
broke down, his liver, his kidneys, his heart and his lungs and other
unnecessary appendages refused to do business even for dollars.
Doctors were called in.
Doctors said, “Willie must rest.”
But Willie had never rested, he did not know how to rest.
“Enjoy yourself,” said the doctors, but Willie had never enjoyed
himself.
“No more brain work,” said the doctors, but Willie’s brain had gained
the momentum of constant habit and did business on its own account.
Willie became morbid, brooding over his case; he could not stop his
brain from thinking dollars, he could not satisfy himself that life was
a success--so he blew his dollar-thinking brains out with an old shot
gun.
A jury sat on Willie and decided that if a man with Willie’s millions
did not care to live, suicide was justifiable--and commendable.
* * * * *
_Moral_--Don’t envy the millionaire; he gives up a lot for what he gets.
[Illustration]