Riches have wings; or, A tale for the rich and poor

BY T. S. ARTHUR. AUTHOR OF “KEEPING UP APPEARANCES,” “THE YOUNG MUSIC TEACHER,” “LADY AT HOME,” ETC.
FIFTH THOUSAND.
NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY BAKER & SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET, AND 36 PARK ROW. 1849.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1847, by BAKER & SCRIBNER, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
S. W. BENEDICT, PRINT. & STER. 16 Spruce Street, N. Y.
RICHES HAVE WINGS.
Riches have wings. In no country is this more strikingly true than in our own. The social history of the world presents no era, nor any people, in which, and among whom, such sudden and remarkable changes in the possession of property have taken place. The man who is worth a million to-day, has no surety that he will be worth a thousand to-morrow. Children who are raised amid all the luxuries that money can procure, too often, when they become men and women, are doomed to hopeless poverty; while the offspring of the poor man, who grew up, perhaps, in the hovel beside their princely mansion, is the money lordling of their darker day.
The causes for this are various: mainly it depends upon our negation, in the beginning of our national existence, of the law of primogeniture and entailment of property. A man cannot be rich here in spite of himself. He may be born to great possessions, but has the full liberty to part with them upon almost any terms that please him; and such alienations are things of every-day occurrence. One result of this is, that property and possessions of all kinds are continually changing hands, and thus placed within the reach of nearly all who have the ability, as well as the desire, to struggle for their attainment. To superior judgment, skill, and industry, when applied to the various pursuits in life, comes the reward of wealth; while the supine and self-indulgent, or those who lack a sound judgment and business acumen, remain in moderate circumstances, or lose the property that came into their hands at majority.