3544 They “Spend, Spend, Spend”
Keith Nicholson won $426,495 in the British soccer pool. His wife announced that he was going to “spend, spend, spend.”
But look what happened to the money and the Nicholsons.
They bought a luxury home for $47,600. (Before they hit the jackpot, they had rented city housing for $5.43 a week. ) They gave parties almost every night. In four years they managed to spend $196,000. “We had oodles of money,” reported Mrs. Nicholson, “but we lost our friends. The people we had known in the old days, and whom we really wanted to see, never came along.”
In 1966, Nicholson was killed in a crash in the $5,600 car bought out of his winnings, From the jackpot money, $107,113 went to the government in death taxes. The remainder was invested, half in trust for the three children, and half to give Mrs. Nicholson $25-a-week income.
—Selected
3545 Writer Of Peyton Place
Few years ago a pudgy, semi-alcoholic housewife named Grace Metalious penned a novel about the extracurricular activities of small-town New Englanders, and so polluted it with the psychopathology of sex—incest, perversion, adultery, etc.—that her publisher orderd her to clean it up. But even after she subjected Peyton Place to some detergency, she still had what the French call a Novel of Scandal.
Immediately after it was published, Peyton Place climbed aboard the bestseller train (what a comment on the perverted reading tastes of the American public! ) And Grace Metalious bacame rich. So rich that she could afford to buy herself a new home, two Cadillacs and divorce her husband.
Grace Metalious married a radio disc jockey. This lasted two years. She reportedly came to the divorce court drunk. The next year, she went with a Welsh journalist, who already had a wife and five children of his own.
Grace Metalious died five months later, leaving this Welshman what she probably thought was a sizeable fortune. Among the twenty-five people attending her funeral were her children and ex-husband George who sat near her coffin and cried.
The minister mentioned her name only once when he said, “May Grace rest in peace.”
3546 Millionaires Seldom Smile
Where is happiness found? John D. Rockefeller, a Christian millionaire, said, “I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.” Broken in health, he employed an armed guard.
W. H. Vanderbilt said, “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”
John Jacob Astor left five million, but had been martyr to dyspepsia and melancholy. He said, “I am the most miserable man on earth.”
Henry Ford, the automobile king, said, “Work is the only pleasure. It is only work that keeps me alive and makes life worth living. I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job.”
Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, said, “Millionaires seldom smile.”
—A. Naismith
3547 World’s Richest Grandpa
London (AFP)—Paul Getty, the richest grandfather in the world, is perhaps happy at last because for his 81st birthday he received a priceless gift—the release of his grandson Paul Getty III who had been held by Italian kidnapers for five months.
The kidnaping of the young man, whose ear was cut off during his captivity, was the latest of a series of misfortunes to hit the Getty family.
The rich oil king once said that he would have sacrificed his entire fortune in exchange for a successful marriage. He has made five attempts at marriage.
Learning by experience, Paul Getty has remained single since the failure of his last attempt—though there has been gossip linking his name with several “possibles.”
At the age of 81, Paul Getty is the head of a family which has become disunited and which has been severely tried by accidents and catastrophes. His millions have bought him neither peace nor tranquility of mind. He once said that there are a lot of things that money cannot buy. It could not buy health, nor affection, nor a good digestion nor a long life, he said.
He also said that money could be an obstacle to happiness. This would seem to have been proven by the recent kidnaping of his grandson in order to extract a huge ransom.
Several of his wives said they could not share the life of a man devoured by a passion for business. Some of his children hold it against him that he has forced them to work instead of letting them enjoy the benefits of his vast fortune which has been estimated as being in the region of 500 million pounds sterling (US $1.2 billion).
3548 Inheriting $45 Million
A blond, clean-cut American teenager recently discovered that he is inheriting forty-five million dollars. And it’s a headache.
“That’s a headache I’d like to have,” some of us say. Well, maybe.
But when all your former girl friends want to start over again, when you have to leave college because all the publicity about your inheritance brings so many requests for donations, and when everyone looks at you with a gleam in his eye—it’s not so much fun.
“I’m not thrilled,” he says nonchalantly.
Meanwhile, he dreams of getting back into school and continuing his law studies. He jokes with his mother about her having to pay him $1.40 an hour instead of $1.25 since the minimum wage law has been increased.
—Doris Harris
3549 He Had To Be Well Guarded
Oftentimes the most discontented and fearful people are those who have great riches. When Calouste Gulbenkian died in 1955, he left a fortune of $420 million! Did riches bring him happiness and peace? Never! He lived in constant fear. An electric barrier surrounded his home in Paris and many private guards and spies guarded him and his mansion.
—The Watchman-Examiner
3550 He Jumped Overboard That Same Moment
Augustine Birrell was Secretary of State for Ireland in the early days of the Asquith administration, and was among the most brilliant essayists of the closing days of the nineteenth century. He and his wife were driving through London one day and came to a mansion of magnificent proportion that took their breath away.
Mrs. Birrell looked at it enviously, asked whose it was, and remarked how happy the owner must be to possess such a place. Mr. Birrell said it belonged to “Barney Barnato,” one of the world’s richest men and partner with Cecils Rhodes. “Perhaps,” he added, “for all his wealth he is not happy.”
In recording the incident later, Mr. Birrell stated that it was almost at that hour that Barnato jumped overboard from a boat coming from South Africa to end his unhappy life. Wealth does not bring happiness.
3551 From Riches Back To Rags
George Francis Train, who was born in Boston in 1829, became one of the most famous eccentric characters in U. S. history. Although he had been left a penniless orphan at the age of three and had had little education, the man made a fortune as a shipping magnate by the time he was 30—and then retired.
After that, Train wrote some ten books, made two trips around the world, got mixed up in political fights in France and Ireland, and helped promote the Union Pacific Railway. In 1869, he announced himself a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in the 1872 election and subsequently made 1,000 speeches which earned him, by charging admission, more than $90,000.
Evidently, this smart trick made enemies, because, soon afterward, Train was deprived of his freedom, which tied up his title to $30,000,000 worth of real estate which he owned in Omaha. It also caused him to lose his faith in mankind, his interest in money and his desire to live well.
During the last ten years of his life, Train rarely spoke to a man or woman, devoted his time to telling stories to children and lived in a $3-a-week room in the Mills Hotel in New York where he died in January 1904.
3552 And “Sorrowful”
Many there are who would think that the word “sorrowful” would never be associated with the words “rich,” “young,” and “ruler.” But such was the case with the young man in Matt. 19:22–23; Luke 18:18. He had position, possessions, and youth. In spite of having all three, he went away sorrowful.
He was sorrowful because of what he would have to give up. He should have been sorrowful because of what he would miss in the future.
—Bible Expositor
3553 Rothschild’s Computed Reply
“You must be a happy man, Mr. Rothschild,” said a gentleman who was sharing the hospitality of the first Baron Rothschild’s home, “Happy! me happy!” was the reply. “What! happy when, just as you are going to dine, you have a letter placed in your hands saying, “If you do not send me £500 I will blow your brains out!” Happy! me happy!”
—Walter Baxendale
3554 Bismarck’s Twenty-Four Hours
He was born to dominate Europe. There was no second string to his bow of power. On the eve of his eightieth birthday Bismarck said to an artist who was painting his portrait, “I have seldom been a happy man. If I reckon up the rare moments of real happiness in my life I do not believe they would make more than twenty-four hours in all.” What a commentary on the “broken cisterns” of earthly ambition and earthly pleasure!
—Al Bryant
3555 Caliph’s Fourteen Days
After the death of Abderman, Caliph of Cordova, the following paper was found in his own handwriting: “Fifty years have elapsed since I became caliph. I have possessed riches, honors, pleasures, friends; in short, everything that man can desire in this world. I have reckoned up the days in which I could say I was really happy; and they amount to fourteen.”
—Foster
3556 Having Gold Of Toulouse
The consul Q. S. Caepio had taken the city of Toulouse by an act of more than common treachery, and possessed himself of the immense wealth stored in the temples of the Gaulish deities. From that day on, he was hunted by calamity: all extremes of evils and disasters, all shame and dishonor, fell so thick on himself and all who were his that any wicked gains fatal to their possessor got the following expression: “He has gold of Toulouse.”
—Trench
3557 Legend Of Midas
According to legend, Bacchus once offered Midas his choice of gifts. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should change into gold. Bacchus consented, though sorry that he had not made a better choice.
Midas went his way, rejoicing in his newly-acquired power, which he quickly put to the test. He could scarcely believe his eyes, when he found a twig of an oak, which he had plucked, become gold in his hand. He took up a stone; it changed to gold. He touched a sod; it did the same. He took an apple from a tree; you would have thought he had robbed the garden of the Hesperides.
His joy knew no bounds; and, when he got home, he ordered the servants to set a splendid feast on the table. Then he found, to his dismay, that, when he touched bread, it hardened in his hand, or put a bite to his lips, it defied his teeth. He took a glass of wine; but it flowed down his throat like melted gold.
In consternation, fearing starvation, he held up his arms, shining with gold, to Bacchus, and besought him to take back his gift. Bacchus said, “Go to the River Pactolus, trace the stream to its fountainhead, there plunge your head and body in, and wash away your fault and its punishment.” Thus Midas learned to hate wealth and splendor.
3558 What Good Is It?
It is recorded of one of America’s richest men, that before he died he said to a friend: “I don’t see what good it does me—all this money that you say is mine. I can’t eat it, can’t spend it; in fact, I never saw it, and never had it in my hand for a moment. I dress no better than my private secretary, and cannot eat as much as my coachman. I live in a big servants’ boardinghouse, have dyspepsia, cannot drink champagne, and most of my money is in the hands of others, who use it mainly for their own benefit.” This is the testimony of one who put his treasure in “a bag with holes.”
—Gospel Herald
3559 Franklin’s Observations
“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vaccum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man; rely upon it: “Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.””
—Benjamin Franklin
3560 Tombstone With $-Sign?
Did you ever see a tombstone with a dollar sign on it? Neither have I. I have known hundreds of men who lived as though their only ambition was to accumulate it, but I have never known one who wanted a final judgment of himself to be based on what he got. A man wants people to read in his obituary, not a balance sheet of his wealth, but a story of his service to humanity.
—Homilope
3561 Epigram On Money & Happiness
• Millionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smiles away.
—Andrew Carnegie
• Happiness is a two-way station between too much and too little.
—Channing Pollock
• Some of us do not believe we are having a good time unless we are doing something we can’t afford.
• Money will buy a fine dog, but only love will make him wag his tail.
• Money makes strangers.
—Japanese Proverb
• The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
• It is known that Lincoln had no great admiration for mere financial success. “Financial success,” he once said, “is purely metallic. The man who gains it has four metallic attributes: gold in his palm, silver on his tongue, brass in his face, and iron in his heart!”
• Upon the statue of Joseph Brotherton is the inscription, “A man’s riches consist not in the amount of his wealth, but in the fewness of his wants.”
• The late Robert Horton said the greatest lesson he learned from life was that people who set their minds and hearts on money are equally disappointed whether they get it or whether they don’t.
See also: Joy ; Pleasure.