The most depressing fact in the old man's life is the
hopelessness of trying to change. His mind has worked so long in
one direction that it can no longer work in any other. He would
like, perhaps, to begin now and live as others live, but he
cannot do it.
There are men whose great wealth is earned WITH PART OF THEIR
ABILITY, leaving them force and strength for other things. Such
a man was Peter Cooper.
But the man most frequently seen in America is the man who
accumulates money for money's sake. His is a sad heart when he
looks over the past and ahead into the short future.
If he has children, he has hardly known them--and HIS MONEY
has separated them from each other.
When his son was a little child the rich man made himself think
that he was piling up the money for that boy. What became of
that boy?
Ask the Keeley Cure, the public gambling houses, Monte Carlo, the
divorce court--and the other "resources" of the sons of the very
rich.
Thousands envy him, and he knows it. But there is little in
being envied when old age makes a lonely life unbearable, and
when the next striking event in his career will be a funeral.
There are hundreds of thousands of men with their thoughts fixed
absolutely on money making. They hate what threatens money.
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