After all, I suppose that most of us, if put into the possession of great wealth, would find our greatest satisfaction in the spending of it much after the fashion of my poor lawyer friend—­that is, in the artistic distribution of human happiness.  I do not, of course, for a moment include in that phrase those soulless systems of philanthropy by which a solid block of money on the one side is applied to the relief of a solid block of human misery on the other, useful and much to be appreciated as such mechanical charity of course is.  It is not, indeed, the pious use of money that is my theme, but rather how to get the most fun, the most personal and original fun, out of it.

The mention of the great caliph suggests a role which is open to any rich man to play, the role of the Haroun Al Raschid of New York.  What a wonderful part to play!  Instead of loitering away one’s evenings at the club, to doff one’s magnificence and lose oneself in the great nightly multitude of the great city, wandering hither and thither, watching and listening, and, with one’s cheque-book for a wand, play the magician of human destinies—­bringing unhoped-for justice to the oppressed, succour as out of heaven to the outcast, and swift retribution, as of sudden lightning, to the oppressor.  To play Providence in some tragic crisis of human lives; at the moment when all seemed lost to step out of the darkness and set all right with a touch of that magic wand.  To walk by the side of lost and lonely men, an unexpected friend; to scribble a word on a card and say, “Present this tomorrow morning at such a number Broadway and see what will happen,” and then to disappear once again into the darkness.  To talk with sad, wandering girls, and arrange that wonderful new hats and other forms of feminine hope shall fall out of the sky into their lonely rooms on the morrow.  To be the friend of weary workmen and all that toil by night while the world is asleep in soft beds.  To come upon the hobo as he lies asleep on the park bench and slip a purse into his tattered coat, and perhaps be somewhere by to see him wake up in the dawn, and watch the strange antics of his joy—­all unsuspected as its cause.  To go up to the poor push-cart man, as he is being hurried from street corner to street corner by the police, and say:  “Would you like to go back to Italy?  Here is a steamer ticket.  A boat sails for Genoa tomorrow.  And here is a thousand dollars.  It will buy you a vineyard in Sicily.  Go home and bid the signora get ready.”  And then to disappear once more, like Harlequin, to flash your wand in some other corner of the human multitude.  Oh, there would be fun for one’s money, something worth while having money for!

I offer this suggestion to any rich man who may care to take it up, free of charge.  It is a fascinating opportunity, and its rewards would be incalculable.  At the end of the year how wise one would be in the human story—­how filled to overflowing his heart with the thought of the joy he would thus have brought to so many lives—­all, too, in pure fun, himself having had such a good time all the while!