Many rich people
dabbled at the giving of money, but they did it so stupidly,
in such a slip-shod fashion, that they got no credit
for it. Even millionaires more or less in public life,
great newspaper-owners, great brewer-peers, and the like,
men who should know how to do things well, gave huge
sums in bulk for public charities, such as the housing
of the poor, and yet contrived somehow to let the kudos
that should have been theirs evaporate. He would make
no such mistake as that.
It was easy enough to see wherein they erred.
They gave superciliously, handing down their alms from a top
lofty altitude of Tory superiority, and the Radicals down
below sniffed or growled even while they grudgingly took
these gifts--that was all nonsense. These aristocratic
or tuft-hunting philanthropists were the veriest duffers.
They laid out millions of pounds in the vain attempt
to secure what might easily be had for mere thousands,
if they went sensibly to work. Their vast benefactions
yielded them at the most bare thanks, or more often no
thanks at all, because they lacked the wit to lay aside
certain little trivial but annoying pretensions, and waive
a few empty prejudices. They went on, year after year,
tossing their fortunes into a sink of contemptuous ingratitude,
wondering feebly why they were not beloved in return.
Pages:
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487