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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS PAGE
COl'YUIOIIT. 191.1, 1IY THK AllIlllTT A ltltlllClS I'OMI'ANY
Dr. Oriton Swell Marden
Who is the Rich
Man in America?
By ORISON SWETT MARDEN
RECENTLY an employee said to
me: "I am only an ordinary
mechanic and my employer
talks as though I were a failure in life
because I am not in business for my
self, and have n't got rich. He tells
me that anybody with an ounce of
brains and pluck ought to be able to
make a fortune in this land of oppor
tunity." To every one, from the immigrant,
who comes here looking for dollars
rolling along the streets, to business
men all over the world, the American
"opportunity" means the opportunity
to get rich. We are all trying to live
up to this idea.
But the sacrifices we Americans
make, the price we pay for fortunes,
is really appalling. Just take a look at
the physical and mental wrecks we see
on every hand. Does it pay to sacri
fice everything for which we ought to
live, to get together a little more
money? How often we see hungry,
cadaverous men with big pocket
books. They have the money, but that
is all they do have.
What is more common than to see
men and women starving the soul,
and paralyzing the growth and expan
sion of the finer sentiments, which
alone make life worth living, for the
sake of piling up material wealth? A
few acres of dirt, a row of buildings, a
place to live in, a few stocks and
bonds, a little silver plate and fine fur
nishings, good clothes, are, after all,
pretty poor sort of things to satisfy
the longings of an immortal soul.
To be engulfed in one's occupation,
swallowed up in a complicated life,
harassed by the striving and strain
ing, the worry and anxiety, which ac
company a vast fortune is this to
be rich?
Opportunities in Service
I HAPPEN to know a wealthy Amer
ican who, when asked what deed of
his life had given him the greatest
happiness, replied that it was paying
a mortgage off a poor woman's home,
which was being sold over her head.
The probabilities are that this man
had expected to find infinitely greater
happiness in money-making, in trying
to manufacture and to sell more goods
than his competitors; but in helping
to save the home of a poor woman he
had actually gained greater joy and
satisfaction than in any experience of
his business career.
Now this man unconsciously
stumbled upon the secret of true
COVER DESIGN-" DOING TIME"
M. M. GRIMBALL
rte
WHO IS THE RICH MAN IN AMERICA? Editorial
ORISON SWETT MARDEN 2
THE COMING MAN OF MEXICO . . . GENERAL FELIX DIAZ 3
Illustrations from Photographs
THE COLLAPSIBLE HUSBAND EDGAR SALTUS 4
Illustrations bp Harvey Emrlch
THE ART OF THE ACROBAT . . . BRANDER MATTHEWS 5
Illustrations bp Harry Stoner
THREE SHEETS IN THE WIND . . . MORGAN ROBERTSON G
Illustrations bp Percy E. Cowen
FRESH FINDINGS FROM MARK TWAIN . ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE 7
Illustrations b Horace Taylor
TOMMY'S GENERALSHIP ,
ROBERT V. HOFFMAN 11
Illustrations bp George W. Woltz
WOMEN OF MARK
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riches, and the real meaning of the
American "opportunity." There never
was before in any country such an op
portunity for developing the riches of
personality through unselfish service
to others as in the American democ
racy today. The cause of Universal
Brotherhood claims us on every hand.
The Oneness of Life
BENEATH all our different races
or creeds, sects, prejudices, there
is a oneness of life, a unity of essence,
which, if we were only conscious of it,
would dispel all differences of race ha
tred or class prejudice. Time and op
portunity, the inclination and the
means to help others and to bring hap
piness into their lives, are the most
valuable things in the world, and if
you can not seize these, if you can not
utilize them to your own enlargement,
your own betterment, you are poor
indeed, and can never know the joy
and satisfaction of true riches, al
though you may have millions of dol
lars. The more a man hoards for selfish
ends, the more he wants. Instead of
filling a vacuum, it makes one. A great
bank account can never make a man
rich. It is the soul that makes the body
rich. No man is rich, however much
money or land he may possess, who
has a poor heart.
Only soul wealth, generous disin
terestedness, the love that seeks not
its own, and hands that help and hearts
that sympathize constitute true riches,
and fill the possessor with the joy of
one who knows that he is fulfilling the
real purpose of his life.
The Wealth of the Poor Man
CAN you regard a man as poor who
may not happen to have money,
but whose character is so exuberant
and whose career is so succulent with
the sweet things of life and experience
that he has enriched and made happy
a whole community? Can you re
gard a man as poor whose neighbors
feel enriched by his mere presence?
Can you regard a man as poor who
lives in an attic, but whose very ex
istence enhances the value of every
acre of land and every home for miles
around him? Do you think of Phillips
Brooks, Thoreau, Garrison, Emerson,
Beecher, Agassiz, as poor men?
The men and women who would
move the world, who would realize
true fortune and power, must be a
part of it; they must touch the life
that now is and feel the thrill of the
movement for social progress.
Only he who seeks humanity's good,
humanity's welfare, to endow human
ity with a fortune, can find his own.
Perhaps the richest American who
ever lived was Abraham Lincoln, be
cause he gave all of himself to his
fellow people. He did not try to
sell his ability to the highest bidder.
Great fees had no special attraction
for him. Lincoln lives in history be
cause he thought more of his friends
of his countrymen and the cause
of humanity than he did of his
pocket-book. He gave himself to his
country as a wise farmer gives his
seed to the earth, and what a harvest
from that sowing! The end of it no
man shall see.
