Two Noted Examples

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 4, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 30.

Two Noted Examples

THERE died in France the other day a great merchant, a department-store millionaire, who had in his employ more than 8,000 men and women. His commercial work made him well known; his genius in the great department-stores which he owned and managed made him popular; he had, through benefactions in different ways, been honored by the government. His employees, many of whom received a mere pittance, were loyal to him. They had been led to expect that when he died, a part of the great wealth which he had amassed,—$20,000,000, we are told,—would be divided among them.

He lived evidently for the applause of men; he loved to be in the limelight of popularity. He was willing that the false impressions which his employees had received should keep them in expectation in order that he might be popular with them.

He planned his own funeral with that thought in mind. The casket in which his remains were enclosed was made of amaranth wood, brought from Brazil, and sculptured bronze. Its cost was $100,000. The pearl buttons on the waistcoat “in which he awaits the day of judgment,” as The Literary Digest puts it, are valued at $100,000, and the shroud which enwrapped him was made of cloth of gold. Opera singers were engaged to perform at the long service at his funeral. On a cushion before the hearse was borne the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, which his riches had helped him to secure.

From the Madeleine (church) to the Père La Chaise (cemetery) the grand cortège moved, bearing the remains of the merchant prince. Hundreds of thousands lined the road, crushing and clamoring to see the procession.

The rich man expected all this, but in a different setting. One editorial writer in Paris remarked: “Perhaps in his selfish vanity, this multimillionaire saw, as in apocalyptic vision, the heart of each Parisian transformed into a censer from which should rise streams of incense wrapping in a glorious cloud of perfume the whole funeral cortège.”

It is certainly evident that he thought Paris would arise to do him honor because of his wealth and the magnificence of his funeral, but there were spectacles witnessed which are indeed significant for the age, and which, could the millionaire have witnessed in his life, might have taught him a lesson. Where his employees who had labored and toiled to help him amass his great wealth, expected to receive $5,000,000 divided among them as had been promised them, they received only a paltry $600,000. He left to the poor only $40,000 of the vast sum. At his funeral employees and poor joined in expressing their rage and disgust, and followed the funeral cortège to its resting-place with curses and mockery. They called it “Le Carnival Chauchard,” the Chauchard Carnival. One paper says: “Grand stands had been set up, windows hired out, and amid hisses, shouts, and cat-calls, mingled with blasts from motor-horns, sirens, and whistles, the plumed hearse swept along.” The police could not check the roar of execration, altho some arrests were made.

The death of the great man was sadly disappointing. Another editorial writer declares: “Those who had assisted in building up his fortune, the employees who sweated that he might enjoy a civil list that was almost imperial, receive from his will a paltry alms, inferior to the tips which it is the custom to dole out at the close of the commercial year. Is it conceivable that such forgetful ingratitude is likely to allay the antagonism of classes, and to bring about a good understanding between masters and men?” And so Chauchard died, and was execrated.

And that is its significance. A few more such examples as that, and we have the uprising of the laboring masses against those who are their masters.

What an opposite example was given us in the case of another wealthy man who was born in Poland in the year 1755, Stanislaus Staszic! He was truly a student, a philosopher, an educated man, a patriot, and a man of wealth. Yet he lived all his life in extreme frugality, doing all that he could to educate students, but otherwise seemingly a miser until he was so regarded by many people. Calumnies unnumbered were heaped upon him; he was ridiculed as he passed through the street carrying his frugal lunch in his hands. Jokes of various kinds were passed upon him because of what was called his penuriousness, while possessing great wealth and large estates.

He was said to be unjust because he refused a spendthrift sister the amount of money which she wished to squander yearly. So much was said against him that one of his favorite students, whom he was educating, came to him and told him that he could no longer accept his benefactions when they were wrung from those who were in need.

Staszic was at that time Prime Minister of Poland. Looking at the young man, his dark eyes filled with emotion, he told him that he must not leave school, for he was one of the most promising of his pupils; but if he could not accept the gift of education, consider it a loan and pay the debt by educating in later years some deserving student like himself; but by all means to stay with the school; and so far as he, Staszic, himself was concerned, to wait. His life, he said, was a secret to himself, a secret which he could not give to others. Wait for his death before he judged his life.

When he died all Poland sought to do him justice. It was then learned that his vast estates were divided into five hundred parts, each to become the property of a free peasant, a former serf. An admirable school was founded to teach the children of these former serfs different trades and give them a working education. These former serfs were to pay a certain small yearly rental, or tax, for the land which was thus freely given to them, for the liberation of their fellow serfs around them on every side. Six hundred thousand florins was set aside for the building and equipment of a model hospital, and quite a sum for the education of poor and studious youths. The whole fortune of the man was given for the uplifting and blessing of humanity.

The sister to whom he felt that he had given a sufficient sum yearly, received the same after his death. He felt that in justice he could not allow money which could be used for the blessing of humanity to be spent foolishly for the gratifying of mere pride, and which would bring no satisfaction to the spender.

When he was buried thousands flocked to view his remains and one writer expresses it, “sought to touch the pall, as tho it were some holy, precious relic,” believing that in that way they would gather some of the virtues of this truly great man. “The memory of the just is blessed.”

It would seem as tho from these examples, which stand out in such strong contrast, wealthy men might learn lessons. God gives men power to get wealth. Men may be equally good, equally able, equally intellectual, and yet one may have power to amass wealth, while the other may not be gifted in that way, tho having superior gifts in other directions. All these gifts should be used for humanity. Just as truly as God

has bestowed upon the preacher of the Gospel a gift to bless men, just so truly has He bestowed the gift to amass wealth for the same purpose. He will hold one as truly responsible as He does the other.

He would have these men who are amassing great fortunes use their wealth wisely for the blessing of humanity. He would not have them tempt the cupidity and strengthen the animosity that naturally arise among the poverty-stricken masses, multitudes of whom are found in discontent and misery in our great cities. Above all things else, He would have them use justice, and after justice, generosity in the largest and wisest way, by helping men to help themselves as did Staszic. Neither should they do as did Chauchard—keep their employees during life on meager wages. Justice should be done them; such treatment as would lead these employees to feel that when the life of their employer was ended, to them justice had been done, and that they had no right to expect anything in the future. There is a way of employing humans which leads them to feel and recognize their manhood and womanhood. There is another way which takes out of them all the aspirations to noble, independent manhood and womanhood. Sooner or later this breaks out in the manifestation of the brute as was seen in Paris on the day of Chauchard’s funeral. It is well for us to heed the words of Holy Writ: “Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

And we would not feel like closing this sketch without a word of admonition to those who are envying the rich. Envy them not; there are other things in this world more precious than all the wealth which men can pile up. Character is more than coin. The grace of God is more than gold. True, noble manhood and womanhood are more than riches can buy. “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content; for they that be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” There are riches within the reach of all, and these are the riches of God’s grace and righteousness, freely imparted without money and without price to all those who will come to Him. These riches are eternal. They give sufficient promise of the life that now is and make sure of the life to come, in which there shall never be poverty or want.