There is a good story told recently of Baron Rothschild, of Paris, the richest man of his class in the world, which shows that it is not only “money which makes the mare go” (or horses either, for that matter), but “ready money,” “unlimited credit” to the contrary notwithstanding. On a very wet and disagreeable day, the Baron took a Parisian omnibus, on his way to the Bourse, or Exchange; near which the “Nabob of Finance” alighted, and was going away without paying. The driver stopped him, and demanded his fare. Rothschild felt in his pocket, but he had not a “red cent” of change. The driver was very wroth:
“Well, what did you get in for, if you could not pay? You must have known, that you had no money!”
“I am Baron Rothschild!” exclaimed the great capitalist; “and there is my card!”
The driver threw the card in the gutter: “Never heard of you before,” said the driver, “and don't want to hear of you again. But I want my fare—and I must have it!”
The great banker was in haste: “I have only an order for a million,” he said. “Give me change;” and he proffered a “coupon” for fifty thousand francs.
The conductor stared, and the passengers set up a horse-laugh. Just then an “Agent de Change” came by, and Baron Rothschild borrowed of him the six sous.
The driver was now seized with a kind of remorseful respect; and turning to the Money-King, he said:
“If you want ten francs, sir, I don't mind lending them to you on my own account!”
“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,” says the Bible, “Thou hast ordained praise.” Whoso reads the following, will feel the force of the passage.