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VOLUME XVII. WffclT&i Do if&^TOfeK \ / / z PjK. ®®aL. «®W Aww^lrS^WWfcw jgg|| WSlSo^ »,0(« »Ew^s) Pfc^O^O^ WfeWfegi^^ .1 WWm^ 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 / To Do Business-- A Square Deol n e The square deal is good enough—the Golden Rule--Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. That’s our motto. Ho w does it strike you ? Come in and see Milledgeville’s only Department Store. We have the store complete—the store that is built for all. Our invitation is to all—and it’s a go. We have the goods. Come in and see us today, tomorrow and the day after. Each day you find us here-and find us ready. Our “Three Big Store” is full of the world’s latest and best offer ings. We want to see you soon. Your friends, W. S. Myrick & Co. Milledgevill’s Only Department Store SI.OO A YEAR.