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VOLUME XVII.
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WHAT TO DO WITH $50,000. ❖
~ $
Five years ago Russell Sage
left his nephew, Elizur Sage, of
Rensselaer, Ind., $50,000 in cash. $
What did he de with ft? .J.
He did not squander it.
He says the schemers didn't
get it. $
The town says the schemers got A
a part of it, anyhow. X
Sage put most of it Into land. A
The land increased in value, and X
probably he still is worth $50,000, ❖
or perhaps a little more. X
He had no desire to travel or <♦
spend. X
He finds that money—even gift “j*
money—is a burden. X
He was happier before he.had X
wealth. X
He is not happy, according to X
his own confession. A
What would you do with SSO,- X
300? A
HAT would you do with
$50,000?
It isn't that any one
has a right to ask, pre
supposing the $50,000
w
to be your j?wn, but sup
posing that some beneficent spirit,
seeing your need and extreme worth
iness, were to come like the good
fairies of our somnolescent dreams
and deposit such a sum to your cred
it in an accommodating bank! What
would you do with it?
To tell this story one must go back.
A little more than five years ago there
lived on a rented farm north of the
quaint little town of Rensselaer, Ind*.,
a poor, sort of soil tiller well past
middle life. What he was able to
glean each year, past rent and depre
ciation, kept him and his flock alive.
That was all. He had never saved
nor had anything. The horizon of his
ambition lay close on his shoulders.
No star glinted in the future, no re
grets stalked the dun past. As he says
himself:
“I was happy and careless then.
Nothing worried me. When I got done
with a hard day’s work I slept. That
was all. It was good in away.”
But the poor farm renter had an
enormously rich relative —so rich, in
fact, that the world drew a deeper and
more envious breath at the symbolical
sound of his name. A hard, cold man
was this relative, sitting disconso
lately by the great heaps of his heart
less gold, harsh, cynical, introspective
but never responsive, imbittered of
success —that hardest of all drugs to
drink in sanity. The poor renter had
seen this Midas only once or twice,
and his experiences with him had
been anything but encouraging.
But one night death turned over
the last shekel, put gold on the eyes
and lips of the rich man, and asked
him what he could buy with it of the
worms. The will left $50,000 to the
poor renter.
This is not a fairy tale. Everything
about it is sact —hard, callous, and,
for that matter, uncompromising fact.
The rich man was Russell Sage and
the poor renter was Elizur Sage,
©he Snuintun bulletin.
NUMBER 8.
Rensselaer, Ind., his nephew. Russell
Sage has been dead five years and
Elizur Sage has been affluent ever
since. Whether he expected anything
of his rich relative one may judge
from this little story:
Some years before, Elizur Sage was
living on a little farm in Illinois.
There fire wiped out his house and
crippled him, sorely. In his need, be
ing too poor to have any standing
with bankers and lenders of money,
he appealed by letter to his multi
millionaire relative for aid. The sum
he asked was ridiculously small.
Many a poorer man than Russell Sage
has spent greater amounts for an
evening's divertisement. But the bard
eyed old financier didn’t do business
on the charitable plan.
Transaction Typical of Sage.
One may recall that he let his wife
yearn for years after velvet carpets.
But he did finally tell his relative he
might have what money he needed
under certain conditions. In the end
Elizur Sage asked only SSO, which
was sent him, and in return be gave
Russell Sage a mortgage on his place
to guarantee this enormous sum.
The newspapers got hold of the
story at the time, and as a result
New York museum proprietor offered
Elizur Sage S2OO a week to appear
with his son in the museum as the
man who had succeeded in borrowing
SSO of Russell Sage. The nephew
never appeared and the experience
has made him a bit chary of news
papers and museums. That they told
only what was true of his rich rela
tive has not softened the sting.
But in the end Elizur Sage got his
$50,000 —all his own, to do with as he
pleased—and there was no Russell
Sage alive to ask a mortgage. There
is more tragedy in this than may
crop out of white paper and black
ink. There is here the ruin of youth,
the wrecking of -‘hopes and enjoy
ments. In the end there is prosperity
when the age for such things is past,
w-hen the ability to enjoy is dead.
Elizur Sage was 58 years old when
the legacy came.
“I might have acted different if I
had been younger,” he said, “but I
wasn’t no young man any more, and
I guess havin' a little money didn’t do
much like makin’ me crazy.”
Neither did it make him happy. In
all the things Elizur Sage says of his
gift gold there is no trace of any gen
uine enjoyment. He is more secure
than he was, but that is all. He isn’t
sure that his money has made him en
joy life more.
Sage did not squander his money.
A bit of native shrewdness is re
sponsible for the fact that the sharp
ers haven’t it all.
Sage invested at least a large part
of his legacy in land.
He still has the land, incumbered or
otherwise, and it has appreciated.
Wealth Fails to Bring Happiness.
He is neither happy nor satisfied.
”1 went into the war at 13," he said.
In beginning his story, “and I was in
the service until I was 16, in the first
Chicago Board of Trade regiment.
Captain Sexton, my commander, was
afterwards postmaster in Chicago. On
leaving the service I went back to my
father, who was in Will county. Illi-
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1911.
nols, In a little town. lie was a car
penter and 1 learned this trade from
him. He also owned a farm. At 29,
in 1869, 1 went to farming bn his place
and stayed there till 1872 or 1873,
when my father died and the estate
'-■as divided. Then I ran a little
grocery and meat market for about
five years and then came to Indiana
and rented a farm. Then for a year
I was back on a farm in Illinois again,
and in 1890 I came back here to In
diana. I’ve been here ever since."
Saga was more than willing to say
that previous to the coming of the
$50,000 he had been absolutely poor.
“No, _ I bad nothing in tbosg days
but a living. I was happy and care
less then,” he said. ‘'Nothing worried
me. When I got done with a hard
day’s work I slept. That was all there
was to it. It was good in a way—no
cares and nothing. I guess I was just
about as well off. As long as any
body has his health I guess he’s about
as happy as he can be made."
“What happened when you got the
money?” was asked.
“Well, the first thing, It put me
into a peck o’ trouble. Friends I
never had before came in. They
sprung up thick and fast. Them that
didn’t know me before the money
came were anxious to be my friends
then. Letters and requests for money
began to come in by packs. Borrow
ers came to me without any security
and thought I ought to lend ’em just
because my money had been given
me. Every kind of scheme was of
fered me where I could double my
money in a month or a year.
‘I didn't feel quite as contented as
1 had before, but I guess that’s just
natural. Before I didn’t have any fear
of being robbed or cheated. But when
I got my money I went right to the
bank with it and left it there. I didn’t
bite on their schemes. Whenever they
hunted me I got leary of ’em. No,
sirree, they didn’t get me on any get
rich-quick stuff.”
Mr. Sage said it as if proud of the
fact. <
"But I knew that land was the saf
est place to put money," he said, “so
I bought land. That’s the place to put
it so you can't lose it. It was a wise
thing. My land has increased in value
so much that I could sell out now and
clean up $36,000. I invested nearly
all my money in land.”
“And what do you think of the gen
eral idea of giving large sums of
money to people in that way?”
“Well, I think it must be a bad
thing. People don't know what a dol
lar is much unless they earn it them
selves. I guess it would have been
like that with me if it had come ear
lier. Money ought to come kind of
slow. It would 'a' been a bad thing
for me if it had come 25 years earlier,
but I was 58 when it did drop in. I'd
had a little more experience then; I’d
got r’l over these here wild notions
and c’ 'n't have no foolish ideas like
runnin -d. After 45 or 50 a man
don’t givt -"h for these get-rich
quick schemi
Mr. Sage told something of fiis land
investments. He possesses, by his
own statement, two farms in Indiana
and one in Ohio. Those in the Hoosier
state are both near Rensselaer, one
three or four miles from town and
the other much further. The nearer
farm contains 180 acres, the other 120
acres, and that in Ohio 160 acres.
Farms Seem Good Investment.
Both the Indiana farms are fine,
rich prairie land worth not less than
$l5O an acre. When they were bought
five years ago they probably brought
about half that sum. What the Ohio
property may bring cannot be said.
On the nearer one of the Indiana
farms the Sage heir has built a big,
nice-looking country home with an un
finished appearance. It has its own
gas lighting and water plants, and
probably represents a cash investment
of $5,000 to $6,000. There are, be
sides. stables, sheds, coops, sheep
sheds, and other minor buildings rep
resenting perhaps another $1,500.
The second farm, further removed,
is not so much improved. There is lit
tle value there aside from the actual
land. The home place is, so Rensse
laer knows and says, on the market
at $175 an acre, with the usual reser
vation that a bid of less will be care
fully considered.
In explaining this Rensselaer gos
sips do not say that Sage is hard up,
or that he has spent his money, but
they say he has never made an im
pression on Rensselaer. The little
town’s society folk have refused to
recognize the man who got rich by
another’s will, so the Sages are un
happy and wish to move to Ohio to
begin over, as it were, and establish
themselves socially as well as finan
cially. Perhaps that is why Elizur
Sage says he was happier before he
got the legacy.—New York World.
Value of Good Teeth.
The principal of a school in Cleve
land, Ohio, has reported marked im
provement in the children who are un
der observation to prove that there is
a relation between the teeth and the
mind, and that having poor teeth not
only makes for sickness of the body,
bur. affects the mind as well. Os
nearly forty children taking the test,
it was found that only two showed ab
solutely no improvement.
The Only Way
/
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