Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1874 — Too Big a Price. [ARTICLE]

Too Big a Price.

A few years ago it was my fortune to be traveling down the Mississippi on a small steamer. I had frequently noticed a tail and powerful man who was among the passengers. He seemed restless and melancholy. Even the presence of his really interesting family seemed to bring no relief. I cannot tell bow this man and myself found ourselves seated together and in free conversation, nor how he came to tell me his history. TTe was from one of the Eastern States, had been apprenticed to learn the blacksmith’s trade, had been harshly dealt with, and had run away. With scarcely no money he had worked his Way to the Ohio, and there, by a few months’ work, had clothed himseif and obtained some money to prosecute bis journey. He took “ deck passage” on a steamer forSt Louis, helping to wood the boat and doing some other hard labor. * By the time he reached Bt. Louis he was out of money, and hired himself at low wages to a blacksmith. Receiving barely enough for his current expenses, and being forced by an exacting employer to work early and late, he determined to try his fortune at Chicago. The canal was about to be constructed, and be got a contract to do certain work as a blacksmith. He was able to buy a few boards with which lie made a shop like an inverted V, in which he sheltered his few blacksmith tools and himself. Here he worked very hard _ and lived very cheap. In a short time - business throve so well that he built a better shop and hired an additional hand. He soon became rich in the possession of vouchers to the amount of a few thousands, deemed good, when the canal failed, leaving him penniless. Not discouraged, he “up and at it again,” and the second time gained a - few thousands only to lose them by a similar misfortune. Again the brave blacksmith took up the itammer, and this time seemed to succeed. He bought real estate for shops on which he organized a new business, which grad- _ ually became extensive. The profits were large, but the risks were so great that repeatedly property had been in peril. Fire, fraud and misfortune had kept him in perpetual anxiety for years, but at last be succeeded in securing a competence that was beyond the reach of all ordinary contingencies. In a word, he was rich and able to retire from business. This narrative, of which only an abstract is given, was related in a quiet and unpretending manner. _ In the description even of some ludicrous incidents he showed no ' sin ns of mirth or even cheerfulness in the reminiscence. Throughout he displayed only unrest and sadness. Said he, “I am only fortv, and yet look at these deep wrinkles” and this grizzled, hair. See how bowed lam. I have never used rum or tobacco, and have been temperate without meanness in my appetites. And yet lam a broken-down man. To get this fortune I have sacrificed moat vigorous health, and am sure to die in middle life.” He paused a moment and then added : “I have won my wealth by such self-denials, risks, reverses, hardships that if I were again a blacksmith’s apprentice, as when I ran away, and I knew that by enduring what I have I could attain as great wealth as I now have, I would not dare to undertake it. It has cost me a great deal too much!.”-.. - ‘ ’ This man is not a solitary case. There are thousands of our successful moneymakers who are paying a big price for their fortunes. It is not charged that they are dishonest or in a wicked line of business, but simply that they sacrifice too much that is better than money In order to get money in quantities 'Which make it a burden rather Than a comfort, and which, so far from adding joy to life, i in rnanv cases brings life itself to a prema' ture end. The price is surely too big.— i Pm. Tuttle, in JiUerier.