vereigns; but his inalienable assets are
in the universities he has endowed, the churches he has helped to build,
the useful societies he has aided, and in the gold mines of public
gratitude which he has opened up.

Many of our most munificent millionaires have been the architects of
their own fortunes. It is most commonly (with some happy exceptions) the
earned wealth, and not the inherited wealth that is bestowed most
freely for the public benefit. The Hon. William E. Dodge once stated in
a popular lecture that he began his career as a boy on a salary of fifty
dollars a year, and his board--part of his duty being to sweep out the
store in which he was employed. He lived to distribute a thousand
dollars a day to Christian missions, and otherwise objects of
benevolence.

There are old men in Pittsburg (or were, not long ago), who remember the
bright Scotch lad, Andrew Carnegie, to whom they used to give a dime for
bringing telegraph messages from the office in which he was employed.
The benefits which he then derived from the use of a free library in
that city, have added to his good impulse, to create such a vast number
of libraries in many lands that his honored name throws into the shade
the names of Bodley and Radcliffe in England, and that of Astor in
America. The mention of this latter name tempts me to narrate an amusing
story of old John Jacob Astor, the founder of the fortune of that
family, and a man who was more noted for acquiring money than for giving
it away for any purpose. Mr. Astor came to New York a poor young man.
His wealth consisted mainly in real estate, which he purchased at an
early day. When the New York and Erie Railroad was projected (it was the
first one ever coming directly into New York), my friend, Judge Joseph
Hoxie, called on Mr. Astor to subscribe to the stock, telling him that
it would add to the value of his real estate. "What do I care for that?"
said the shrewd old German, "I never sells, I only buys." "Well," said
Judge Hoxie, "your son, William, has subscribed for several shares." "He
can do that," was the chuckling reply, "he has got a rich father." It is
a fair problem how many such possessors of real estate it would take to
build up the prosperity of a great city.

There is one temptation to which great wealth has sometimes subjected
its possessors, which demands from me a word of patriotic protest. It is
the temptation to use it for political advancement. No fact is more
pa