The Evening Argus

THE WAY TO WEALTH.

The New Orleans Times gives the annexed account of how a fortune of $20,000 was accumulated, and how a portion of it was foolishly lost by ignorance:

An old, well known, and somewhat remarkable resident of Algiers, John Baptiste Molinare, aged fifty-five years, departed this life on Wednesday last. John Baptiste Molinare, according to the Independent, purchased, in 1850, a piece of apparently valueless swamp land, always covered with water except in a very dry season, and situated on what is known as the plank road. This piece of ground Johnny contrived to raise and render available for building purposes, by the slow and laborious process of wheeling sand from the levees in a barrow. Every morning before going to work he wheeled at least four barrow loads, and two at dinner time. Thus, little by little, he filled his lots, more than quintupling their value. One by one he erected, by his own labor, a series of "shebangs," put together in the most economical manner, but always bringing a rent out of all proportion to the cost of building. Added to his laborious habits, was that of the closest economy, amounting to penuriousness. His food was principally stale bread, of which a greater quantity could be had for the same money, and by long observation he had learned where to purchase necessaries (and he bought nothing but the merest necessaries) at the lowest possible price. In this way Johnny went on making small accumulations until at the time of his death he owned property approaching in value $20,000.

He was afraid to trust his money to banks and so he hoarded it away in strange places, preferring to lose the interest to risking the principal. At one time he had the sum of $900 in an old shoe which was gnawed up by rats. On another occasion his want of education caused him to pay a mortgage of $2,000, for which he had never received an iota of value. He died leaving no will.