Growing Rich | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 13, 1864

Growing Rich.

THE following is a graphic description of the course that is being pursued by too many of the present generation. Brethren, are any of you growing rich in the sense set forth below? If so, we join in the conclusion of the writer, that you are growing "miserably poor."—Ed.

"Your nephew, Felix Graham, is growing rich, I hear," said my neighbor Jones, as he carried me to the depot whence I was to start for a visit to my sister's son.

"Perhaps so," was my brief reply: "I do not know the state of his finances."

"There is no doubt of it, I should think," he rejoined. "My brother met him last winter at the City Savings Bank, and saw him deposit a thousand dollars as the net gains of his farming the past year. I hear he is driving a great business this summer, and he will probably have another pile for investment when January comes round again. But you are going there, and will see for yourself; so good bye."

I had not visited Felix in four or five years. But having sent notice of my intention to go there by the early morning train, I was a little disappointed on my arrival at the "Cross Roads," which was the nearest station to his dwelling, and about two miles distant, not to see the horse and chaise, which had always been sent to meet me. However, there was a decent conveyance called the Grahamville Express, which would take me almost to my nephew's door; and so I went along. The driver knew me, for the village had been my home before my marriage and removal to the city; and he too spoke of Felix Graham as a man to be envied for his steady and growing prosperity.

"I hope to find him well, then," I said. "When I missed him at the depot, I feared something was the matter."

"Ah, he was too busy to leave, I suspect. When a man has made up his mind to be rich, he can't stop for trifles, you know," and the expressman laughed as if his joke was good as the subject of it, and perhaps it was. My nephew's daughters met me as the wagon stopped, and welcomed me most heartily. Jane and Lucy were sensible, affectionate girls, fast growing to womanhood. Taking my bag and handbox in their arms, they escorted me to the house; and then, leaving me to the cordial greeting of their mother, they went back for my trunk.

"That is too heavy for the girls," I said, rising hastily to prevent it. But Mrs. Graham held me back.

"Felix expects us to manage such little matters," she replied. "He and the men are so busy always, and their time is worth so much more than ours," she added apologetically.

I did not meet my nephew till supper was on the table. "Glad to see you, Aunt Lois," he said, as he shook my hand furiously, and hastened to take his seat. "I suppose you expected me at the depot, but this is my cucumber harvest; every hour is worth so much gold to me. I shall get 25 cents for every cucumber I can send to market this week, and that will count up the money fast." The complacent, self-satisfied smile with which he said this was a revelation to me.

"Have you read Mr.——'s last volume?" I enquired of Jenny, as she sat for a few moments in my chamber that evening.

"I have hardly seen a book since I left school two years since," was the reply. "Father says he cannot afford to buy them, and Lucy and I are too constantly occupied during the day, and too weary in the evening to read much if we had them." The sigh which followed Jenny's explanation went to my heart, for I knew how she loved to read and study when I saw her in childhood.

"You are working too hard," I said to my nephew's wife, as I followed her through the round of toil from Tuesday to Saturday. "With so many hired men to cook for, and such a dairy to tend, you need a stouter frame and stronger arms than you or the girls can boast."

"Yes, aunt, we are all doing too much," she said sadly. "But Felix is so bent on getting rich, that he cannot afford to hire help in the house: that would take off the profits, he says," and the wearied woman shook her head hopelessly.

Sunday came, and with it the morning and evening family devotion, which I had missed during the week. I suppose my looks must have shown the surprise I felt, for my nephew attempted a hasty explanation.

"We got no time for this, week days, Aunt Lois, as you must have observed. I have so many men on hand, that I can't afford to have them lose half an hour in the morning, and they don't value these things, you know. I have to keep a sharp eye to business, myself, to bring the year round right. But I don't mean to give up my religion; so we read two or three chapters on Sundays, when we can spare the time better."

Monday morning my visit was completed, and I started for home. Felix accompanied me to the depot, having business in that direction. When we reached the cars, a pale and feeble soldier, who had lost a leg in his country's service, solicited help. My nephew turned a deaf ear to the moving appeal, his whispered apology to me being two facts, "that he wanted to lay up $1200 this year," and that "really government ought to take care of the soldiers."

When I reached home, I sat down and wept. And though I did not explain the matter to my neighbor Jones, who came to meet me, I did say to myself, and I tell it in confidence, dear reader, to you, that it is my opinion Felix Graham is growing miserably poor.

Springfield Republican.