No Cause for Envy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 26, 1906

No Cause for Envy

THE following dialogue is reported as having taken place between Mr. Jacob Ridgway, a Philadelphia millionaire, and a young man who thought Mr. Ridgway was greatly to be envied on account of his wealth. “Think,” said the young man, “of the thousands your income brings you every month.”

“Well, what of that?” replied Mr. Ridgway. “All I get out of it is my victuals and clothes; and I can’t eat more than one man’s allowance, or wear more than one suit of clothes at a time. Pray can’t you do as much?”

“Ah! but,” said the youth, “think of the fine houses you own, and the rental they bring you!”

“What better off am I for that?” replied the rich man. “I can live in only one house at a time; as for the money I receive for rents, I can’t eat it, or wear it; I can only use it to buy other houses for other people to live in; they are the beneficiaries, not I.”

“But you can buy splendid furniture and costly pictures, and fine carriages and horses; in fact, what you desire.”

“And after I have bought them,” responded Mr. Ridgway, “what then? I can only look at the furniture and pictures, and the poorest man who is not blind can do the same. I can ride no easier in a fine carriage than you in an omnibus for five cents, with the trouble and attention to drivers, footmen, and hostlers; and as to anything I desire, I can tell you, young man, that the less we desire in this world the happier we shall be. All my wealth can not buy back my youth, can not purchase exemption from sickness and pain, can not procure me power to keep afar off the hour of death; and then, what will all avail when, in a few short years at most, I lie down in the grave and leave it all forever? Young man, you have no cause to envy me.”