The Guernsey Gazette

When You Get Rich.

Only Then Are You Appreciated For Your True Worth.

Upton Sinclair, the novelist, was talking about wealth at Lake Placid.

'It is pleasant to be rich,' he said. 'Nobody can deny that. Many of the pleasures of wealth, though, are false and mistaken ones.

'When I was making my living by the composition of blood and thunder tales for boys—and I could turn out my 5,000 words a day—I knew a pale, bent, ink-stained old chap who wrote love stories.

'His stories did not pay; he was very poor; but an aunt died, and suddenly the old fellow found himself a millionaire.

'He saw me one afternoon on Broadway. He stopped his red car and we chatted about old times.

''And is it pleasant to be rich?' I asked.

''Yes, it is,' he answered, as he lighted a Vuelta Abajos and handed me another. 'And do you know what is the pleasantest thing about it? You have an opportunity to make real friends, friends who can understand you. You get at last to know people capable of esteeming you for your own qualities alone. You find, sir, that you are at last appreciated.''