“No man is rich whose expenditures exceed his means; and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.”–Haliburton.
A COMIC poet of Rome who lived about 200 B. C. wailed in his writings about “the good old days,” just as we do. Concern?ing the city of Rome he said:
“I only wish the old-fashioned ways and the old-fashioned thriftiness were in greater esteem here.'’
The richest man of Athens, about 450 B. C, was a man named Callias who shocked the civilized world by the enormous fortune he gave his grand?daughter when she married Alcibiades, the great?est statesman and soldier of the time.
How much do you suppose that lavish marriage gift was?
A little more than $12,000.
We can think of many men in this city who could give a daughter or grand-daughter $12,000 if she were marrying the most distinguished man in our Country.
Demosthenes, the greatest orator, lived with his mother and sister upon an income of $120 a year, “exclusive of house rent” as the record says. His father was a merchant and left a fortune of 14 talents, which was regarded as considerable property.
A talent equaled about $1,225 of our money, so a man who was worth 14 of them, or about $17,000, was a rich man. The richest man of all was Callias, whose wealth was estimated at 200 talents, or about $245,000. Not much compared with the millions that many Americans possess.
An Athenian of the B. C. days could live respect?ably on the interest of one talent–about $17 a year!
In the 12th century the cost of living had risen in Europe. But even then a man could with $50 pay the rent of a farm for a year, and equip it with three draft horses, twenty cows, and two hundred sheep. And he could hire harvest hands for 4 cents a day. The Lord High Chancellor of London had an income of only about $200 a year. Twenty-four dollars a year was a big salary, and 3 cents was the usual wage for a day’s work.
About the 15th century prices had risen further. For then a pair of shoes or a wagon load of wood cost 7 cents, and a fat sheep cost 19 cents.
After the war of 1812 in America, the price of shoes had climbed to $1.20 a pair, and farm hands were paid $12 a month.
After the Civil War, about 1877, the Thanks?giving turkey cost 9 cents a pound, and the bacon for breakfast was 6 cents a pound.
But then $1.50 was good wages for a day’s work, and a salaried man who received $50 a month was a high-priced man.
When living cost the least–people had the least.
Prosperity of the people grew as prices grew.
The man of today who spends $1.50 for one chicken for Sunday dinner lives better than kings of the olden days when a chicken cost a cent. He makes money. He has money. He thinks in thou?sands where his ancestors thought in pennies.
Compare the way a brick mason right here in this city lives, with the way a man doing the same work lived fifty years ago–and compare him with a hundred years before. If you look into his bank account, you will find he has more actual cash than many princes had a century or two ago.
The average woman places more money in her bank account each month than the brilliant daughter of King Edward the Fourth had with which to pay for the splendor her position at court demanded.
“It is not the greatness of a man’s means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.”–Cobbett.
