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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872. Excerpt: ... XVI. Sometimes people say to me "The truth is, I am obliged to keep up an appearance. It would hurt me in my business if people were to think I am not well off. I must mak ashow." It was this logic (not mine, but that of another party, and I was overborne) which took me into that ghastly, bemirrored, red satin and gilt moulding drawing-room I told you of just now. And the moral of the story would be lost if I failed to mention that it was exactly this move--of seeming to be in possession of means which he had not--which lost my logician the game. He befooled everybody so well, that he befooled the people who employed him. They, seeing the style he was living in, imagined he must be robbing them, and so discharged him. A man who has passed years in a community has lived an arid life indeed, if his worth and excellence have not penetrated further than his own household, and given him a standing among his townsmen which money can neither add to, nor take from. I should like to know if Henry Ward Beecher is valued by his community on account of his income? Or is it on account of the nourishing food for mind and heart which he lavishes for all men and women who can read, and for the few thousands who can get near him to hear? Is Robert Collyer thought fnuch of in Chicago for any %style in which he lives, any parties he gives? Or is it for the beauty which he throws into the life which now is, for all who come in contact with him? I could name lawyers, doctors, merchants who wield a similar though smaller influence. No one cares whether they are wealthy or not. But if you can afford to live in fine style, and if you can lead a better and nobler life in a grand mansion than you can in a modest one--if you can even do better work there, why then there is no...
