THE DELIGHTS OF MONEY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 74, 16 March 1876, Page 4

THE DELIGHTS OF MONEY.

|7.y (From the Graphic. LrL-'- . •' ; Itis tacitly agreed by the bulk of people that this world is only quite satisfactory when you are doing one of ,two : ,thingß in it*— kissing, or handling " money. ■ The young folks give a silly • preference, tp the former, but everybody who has lived to be mature knows that for a solid delight, one to be depended upon, it is to the second they must look. The sum total of kisses, like sovereigns is deficient, but some people do get enough of tbem. They can stop. Nobody ever wearied of t receiving money. It is the only one act man is capable of which cannot tire him. The oldest, moßt infirm, does not find it too much for his ' sireng'th., and ask for it to be put off. Indeed, the fault complained of in things as they are at present constituted 1 , 1 is that even the luckiest has such restricted^ such inadequate opportunities of testing the limits of what he can do in this way. Some of us who are conscious of the very finest abilities; for it can . scarcely get a chance. 'We are nearly all kept in a state of ' chronio ravening for coin ; there never is half enough money about. It is all makeshift ; one dunning another, .waiting: -and hoping for the bliss of receiving the. insufficient cash in turn. Philosophers may word it differently, but the .scheme on whioh this world ip really framed is that of every man owing somebody else money, wbich he can only pay. by somebody else who owes him coming up to time in his .payment, and this third person never quite does so. The natural, unavoidable result is .that the human race is always a little behind with its bills, and, in this way, the universe is made Enbre or less disagreeable. No doubt tbis fine uncertainty heightens the ecstasy of touching the coin in the rare_brigbt moments when it comes. And certainly, it is a delicious feeling. For just the balf-moment when a pay- > ment flashes upon a man, before he bas discovered that tbe amount might well have been more, the sense of full, safe, sleek comfort it gives is exquisite. On obtaining a good round sum, everything takes on a golden aspect ; men seem to' grow, right-minded, and the world becomes as it ought always to be, for just a seoond. By this sublime act of payment; the inaccuracies of destiny are rectified to the man who receives. He has a feeling of being appreciated in the plan of nature; his reality as part of things is admitted ; if the amount is respectable he is recognised. Owing to some lingerings of oldfashioned habits there still are persons wbo do not realise these sensations to the full unless tbe money is in hard coin. ,; Bank of England notes are nearly ac welcome; but gold brings with it a refreshing, complete fulfillment of every hope and wish. A cheque involves a little postponement, ifc is not full and sudden enough ; aoother step has to be taken for fruition. ' Something is interposed. On the otber hand the germs are daily growing and spreading of a newer and better, .sentiment in favor of cheques. The first sight of them lends itself to an indefinite supposition tbat they are for a larger sum than it would be convenient, to carry about in coin. But this is only a question of degrees of bliss. Money is money in whatever form, and receiving anyhow is sweet. Some heightenings and lowerings of the interest there, however, are determined by the how or the why of the mcney coming to you. There is a certain, intensifying of excitement in getting it for work done. If the payment is enough, and. given nngrudgingly, it stamps life with a satisfactory, morality. A conviction arises that tbere is some faith in men yet. But should it he for a single job, the satisfaction is shortlived. You know the golden delight finished in arising. The bright affair is- single, separate ; its successor hangs in the clouds. Money, to be quite contenting, should have a vista ; should open up: a prospect of repetitions. If it comes in the shape of a stipend, it does, this in a fashion. There iB added content in knowing that the payment is but. one. of a series. The drawback is j that it is found to be impossible to arrange a stipend the intervals of which seen in the -perspective do not quickly get to look too large. It is only complete sinecure appointments that make euch 4 waiting perfectly bearable. "Uncertainty of whence your money is to come, if only it is coupled with a firm, verified assurance of its coming in sufficient, that iB, in ever-increasing, abundance from somewhere, gives to it a magic of another kind. Some few men 'among us must enjoy a pleasant wonder at the ligbt inexplicable way in .which their incomes reach them. They live amidst a golden shower, tbe sources of which are unassignable, but which does hot cease to fall on them. A fashionable doctor, one who does not any- longer depend upon a set circle of people punctually falling ill for bis benefit at expected intervals, but wbom strangers seek out, must at times feel strange at his consulting-room filling daily with persons coming, as it were, out of space. So, too, a leading lawyer, whose business might seem to come to a possible end at the closing of every brief, must in time get a curious persuasion that people are quarrelling all over the country to find him work, and that he is pretty sure of some of their money, in. the right course. Money received in fees in this queer, unpreIdictablp,- and j? yet quite certain way, must have a romantic titillating character of its own. Even' a certain class ol jshops in, some .of the wain thorough-

fares,, doing only a ready-money trades, having no old customers, but beginning afresh every morning when (hey take down the' shutters, must give the people in them something of this odd feeling of money tumbling hap-hazardly out of the air. But, if , W9 go a step higher^ all important businesses are now' conr ducted on a scale which makes it increasingly impossible to associate their money definitely with its sources; It comes from tbe end of the world, and it comes punctually, and continues to come. The thing is the most delightful magic possible. But, after all, for an average individual, his money, in order to give a full, lingering, exhaustive enjoyment, should be derived from an investment. A man who wisely eschews foreign; funds, especially Turkish, confining himself to English Consols, must have a perfectly sure, bulky sense of prosperity, and of being mixed up with the Government in a creditable business transaction. A shareholder in a railway, sinoe railways began to look up, cannot avoid a sense pf his money ' bustling about the lines day and night, earning him dividends. If he sees a porter in his well-known uniform, he must feel that he in part owns him. ' The great thing is for your money to be at work for you while you are still. This is money made permanent, continuous, self-increasing. Invested in land, it still keeps a remnant of its superior traditionary charm, only perplexed a little by a divided longing that the soil was eilher covered by town houses or turned into coal-pits. But, take whatever form it may, money is delightful; invested in Consols, shares, houses, or land, it only offers a competition of charms.