--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Kenner, S. A. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 10 published: 1901-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'S. A. Kenner, "A Tale of Two Citizens," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 10 (August 1901): 765–768.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0410unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0410unse start_page: 765 end_page: 768 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0410unse publication_year: 1901 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Tale of Two Citizens A TALE OF TWO CITIZENS. BY S. A. KENNER. Once upon a time, a good man who was also rich (a somewhat unusual combination in any age of the world) conceived the idea of gradually dissipating his gains by giving them away, his avowed purpose being to depart this life upon somewhat similar terms to those on which he entered it. As he was tolerably well advanced in years, and in the ordinary course of nature could not expect to move among the affairs of men in the flesh much longer, and his possessions were very great,it was apparent that, to accomplish his purpose, he would have to begin operations at once and keep them going without much intermission. As may easily be under- stood, he had little if any difficulty in finding takers of his bounty, and as one million after another disappeared, it soon became an animated question as to how soon the end might come. To the amazement of the multitude, the pace was not slackened but in- creased, and millions were ladled out by fives and tens. These all — went into places where they would do good that is, one kind of good, namely, the improvement of the mind, scholastically con- sidered. Any city that applied for it could get a public library of goodly proportions, if it had none, or, if such a thing were pos- sessed, could have it greatly augumented and elaborated; while colleges, universities and other of the higher institutes of educa- tion, were endowed and strengthened as such institutions had rarely if ever been before in any period of the world's history. Fame came to what was previously but a name, eminence followed, and when the last sad moment arrived and the curtain fell upon the drama of life, the man was (metaphorically and spiritually, of 766 IMPROVEMENT ERA. course) called before the footlights and showered with more tokens of approval than ever before fell to the lot of any other poor man who had become poor through his own actions. It was a great oc- casion, and the tributes were most worthily bestowed. During the time spoken of, there lived and moved among men another philanthropist who was wealthy. He was not as wealthy as the other; few there be at any time who are so fortunate. The one of whom mention is now made did not have so much by a tenth part as the other gave away at one time; yet he was accounted rich and, measured by the holdings of the greater part of the world's people, he undoubtedly was. His fortune as a whole would have required at least five ciphers, with something beyond the first numeral at its head, to give it expression on paper. As in the other case, it was more or less today than yesterday, or last week, just as it happened, because, between the fluctuations of income and outgo, equations could not always be reached. The fact that he had less makes it a plain proposition that he gave less, also that he received less, still he was able to dispense liberally, and did so, but he gave in a different way and to different places. Great cities with corresponding possessions and incomes, gathered no more from his store than was reached by the ubiquitous and undying tax col- lector, while the great institutes of learning knew no more of him than amounted to a casual acquaintance. It was not that he was insensible or indifferent to the schools or the book repositories; not by any means. On the contrary, he was something of a biblio- phile himself, had a fine private library, and believed in the widest reasonable diffusion of knowledge, whether gained in the schools or out of them. He took the view that in this practical life, we need many things to fit us for useful and exemplary citizenship, to say nothing of enjoyment, as we pass along, and that while educa- tion is indispensable, and books are inevitable, they are not the only things to be considered in such connection; that is, we can't live, move and have an identity, if we have these and nothing else. True, they are possessions by means of which we obtain others in many cases, but not in every case. A hungry student doesn't learn fast, if at all, and a coatless philosopher in mid-winter is apt to let his mind run so much upon the noun substantive of fuel in a state of combustion as to exclude pretty much everything else; and so, for A TALE OF TWO CITIZENS. 767 the time being, he ceases to be a philosopher and becomes simply a mortal of ordinary clay, with all a mortal's weaknesses promi- nently developed. All these things produced in the mind of the moderately wealthy man strong confirmation of his doctrine that that charity is most charitable which reaches out to the most people, and in the manner which affords the greatest amount of relief, in the form and at the time it is needed. Thus, a ton of coal to a poor family on a bitter January day, when they were shiver- ing with cold, amounted to saving life as well as securing comfort; whereas, a wagon load or so of books would have alleviated nothing and nobody, and been a cruel mockery. A boy in the street, who was practically shoeless and quivering amid the icy blasts which swept down upon him, found good shoes and a warm coat of more benefit than an elucidation of the isosceles triangle or the solar parallax, as useful as the latter might be when other things were proper. An enterprising citizen who conducted a manufac- turing establishment in which were employed twenty persons, each of whom either supported or-contributed to the support of a family, was, by a pressure of circumstances, some of them unforeseen, forced to the wall, as the saying is in commercial circles. He would have to suspend operations for a time unless he could at once com- mand a sum sufficiently large to meet all demands, and most of us know something about the habit capital has of keeping away from places where it is really needed. For a business man to put out dis- tress signals, means to drive the well-to-do away — the rats desert the sinking ship; it is only when all is fair sailing and no help is needed that plenty of it can be obtained without difficulty and on short notice. The manufacturer's suspension would not have been so serious a thing to him personally, as he was in tolerably comfort- able circumstances otherwise, but it would have meant closer living for all, and actual deprivation to some of his employees. They oc- cupied the most of his thoughts, and he felt for them more con- cern than is common among employers, but what could he do? To become weak financially is a state of things which soars abroad on the pinions of an eagle, and he might as well have sought entrance to a fashionable church in shabby attire, as to have sought to ob- tain money enough to tide him over, under the circumstances. 768 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Here was our more moderate philanthropist's chance, and it was not thrown away. The factory did not close down, none of the workmen lost an hour's time, except by their own election, and the proprietor was soon on his feet again. These incidents are but a few of many that might be named showing the every-day sort of help that this man extended, and all without noise, or red-tape formality, or advertising of any kind. When he died, there were no such demonstrations as in the case of the other good man, and the great dailies of the land seem to have overlooked the incident altogether. He has, and will probably have, no monument — of stone, metal, or anything of that kind; but he will have one that is more enduring than either, and one stand- ing for more. Down deep in the hearts of the people whom he has befriended, his image will be enshrined; and .their children will keep his memory green to the last. In the great book of the beyond, upon which mortal eyes are not permitted to look, in which are recorded the great and good deeds of mankind during his pilgrimage from the cradle to the coffin, undoubtedly the names of both the men herein spoken of will appear, written in bright and beautiful characters. Will that of the one who had and did less be smaller and dimmer than the other, correspondingly? At this distance away, and thus far ahead, what is the reader's judgment as to that?