Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1877 — A Man’s Capital. [ARTICLE]

A Man’s Capital.

Every human being possesses more or less capital. No one Is so poor but that he is to a degree a capitalist. He may not be a millionaire; he may not bo th* holder of *a single dollar; he may not count as his own one cent, yet he must be a capitalist to live. The grades of capitalists are as numerous as there arc human beings; but, looking at the several grades -in a general way—by grouping manv into one—let us pry a little into the distinctive peculiarities of each. The millionaire. He is the man whom the world is inclined to envy most He is the man of vast estates; of stocks in stacks; of money in heaps, and of an ipcome which is wearisome only in the counting. Measured in the common balance of human kind, he is the most well-to-do of all creatures. His income—and that is the one desideratum of life, as sized by cold mathematics—alone amounts to 1100,000 per year, counting for convenience at the rate of 10 per cent, rate, as interest on the capital, or only a little less if counted at Bor 6 per cent. The millionaire; has accumulated that which will always yield him his SIOO,OOO or thereabouts per annum, provided, of course, he loses not his capital, a thing which—in his case being of perishable material, estates, stocks, money, etc. —is quite liable to be lost, since material fortune flies away on wings all the swifter for being es gold. There is another millionaire. He is even rarer than the one we have, been contemplating, and he is likewise a more enviable individual. This other millionaire has no estates, perchance, no stocks, no gold; or, having these, puts little trust iu them for his income.. He is the millionaire in mind. He is the man who, by diligence, and study, and good judgment, and the exercise of honor, has risen to so high a position in his profession, or in the estimation of mankind, that his capital—made up of ability, instead of estates; of diligence, instead of stocks; of popular esteem, instead of money—yields him his SIOO,OOO a year in cash quite as easily as the money-ihillion-aire’s capital yields him a similar sum. It is true, as before observed, that millionaires of thia class are few, but among our great lawyers, legists, statesmen, literary personages, and some others, occasionally we find onfe; So all through the stages of society pro found the two kinds of capital—capital in the pocket, and capital in the head. The man whose commercial business, whose profession, whose trade, whose skill in any line yields him SIO,OOO a year, has a capital—either in pocket or head —which may be estimated at about SIOO,OOO. In like manner, the man who can earn half of SIO,OOO, or one-quarter or one-eighth of that amount, has capital stock on hand which will bear an estimate of from $50,000, to $25,000, or tq $12,000 in bulk. ■ The best capital to possess, it must be acknowledged, is the capital of the brain, and poor indeed is he who, having none of the pocket capital, and likewise neither brain capital, must rely upon relative captai, as uoes the child; upon friend capital, as does the really bankrupt person, or upon “ cheek” capital,as does the “deadbeat” and “ tramp.” To increase one’s capital, especially the imperishable capital of the brain, is one of the highest duties man owes to himself, to his family and to society. It is a laying up of treasure which cannot be destroyed so long as life and reason sit enthroned, and it is the burnishing process which reflects the only light by which progress pushes her way on and on. Its reward is constant, and its inierest nsver fails. The possessor of such a capital in full measure is always iu demand, aud this capital of the head is the one kind which will never be a drug iu tlie world’s market. Get all you can of it.— Chicago Journal.