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Chapter 24: on the natural disapproval of wealth
There is a natural feeling of distrust and even disapproval of wealth, especially on the part of those who have never possessed it. It is natural also that this should be a sliding scale, and that each person should regard the next largest tax-payer as too rich.
Thirty years ago, at the sea-side resort called
Pigeon Cove, or
Cape Ann, there was a village wit known habitually as Old Knowlton, a retired fisherman, who delighted to corner in argument a set of eminent clergymen who then resorted there, as
Dr. Chapin,
Dr. Gannett,
Dr. Bartol,
Thomas Starr King, and others.
He liked to swear before them, to ask hard questions out of the Old Testament, and to call them familiarly by their last names.
One day he was much startled, on asking about
Dr. Gannett's salary, to hear that it was $3000,