And What We Gain 211 



have given me by their books. As to the so- 

 called literary evenings of great cities occa- 

 sions upon which some person in public view 

 at the moment is placed upon exhibition by 

 Mrs. Leo Hunter, I know of few less dreary 

 ways of wasting precious time. 



I presume that in this matter of house, 

 grounds, clothes, and other signs of outward 

 luxury, the fact that poverty is considered 

 synonymous with inferiority is primarily due to 

 simple causes. I wear a patched coat ; there- 

 fore I have no money wherewith to buy a new 

 one. The absence of money implies inability 

 to earn money ; therefore I am not so energetic 

 or so clever as some of my fellow-men who 

 earn more money and wear good coats. In a 

 country where the measure of a man is the 

 amount of money or property that he has been 

 able to acquire, either through industry or 

 luck in gambling, it is inevitable that the 

 money standard, or the coat standard, should 

 acquire the weight of a moral law. The man 

 who wears a patched coat and only wears 

 gloves when the weather makes the gloves a 

 physical comfort, must be an inferior sort of 



