MAMMON RULES SOCIETY. 49 



Let him have a thousand dollars and, when it 

 is known, he at once becomes a citizen of repute 

 with credit for his daily needs and on a par 

 with the vast majority of those about him. If 

 his possessions are ten thousand dollars, he is, 

 in a town or city of the size mentioned, a mem- 

 ber of the best society an equal of most other 

 men. But if he be the fortunate possessor of a 

 hundred thousand, he is at once a god, wor- 

 shiped on every side a leader whom all re- 

 vere, to whom all pander even tho* his knowl- 

 edge be little higher than the ape's. It is not 

 brain, it is mammon, which rules society in the 

 American towns and cities of to-day. 



Is it any wonder, then, that gold, wealth, the 

 almighty dollar, is the chief thought in the mind 

 of man ? Is it any wonder that dissatisfaction 

 exists, since only the few possess the plenty, for 

 which all others are striving ? If the American 

 citizen would be content with the simple life 

 satisfied with the possession of the prime neces- 

 sities of food, clothing and shelter forget for 

 a time the mad race for pelf and place content 

 would reign in the habitations of man with 



(4) 



