RICHES HAVE WINGS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Riches have wings. In no country is this more strikingly true than in our own. The social history of the world presents no era, nor any people, in which, and among whom, such sudden and remarkable changes in the possession of property have taken place. The man who is worth a million to-day, has no surety that he will be worth a thousand to-morrow. Children who are raised amid all the luxuries that money can procure, too often, when they become men and women, are doomed to hopeless poverty; while the offspring of the poor man, who grew up, perhaps, in the hovel beside their princely mansion, is the money lordling of their darker day. The causes for this are various: mainly it depends upon our negation, in the beginning of our national existence, of the law of primogeniture and entailment of property. A man cannot be rich here in spite of himself. He may be born to great possessions, but has the full liberty to part with them upon almost any terms that please him; and such alienations are things of every-day occurrence. One result of this is, that property and possessions of all kinds are continually changing hands, and thus placed within the reach of nearly all who have the ability, as well as the desire, to struggle for their attainment. To superior judgment, skill, and industry, when applied to the various pursuits in life, comes the reward of wealth; while the supine and self-indulgent, or those who lack a sound judgment and business acumen, remain in moderate circumstances, or lose the property that came into their hands at majority. There are no privileged classes here, made such by arbitrary national preferences of one over another. In the eye of the nation, every man is born free and equal. The son of the humble artisan or day-laborer can enter the same course, and start for the same goal, with the son of the wealthiest and most distinguished in the land--and beat him in the race if he be swifter of foot, and possess greater endurance. The consequence of all this is, that wealth becomes a less and less stable thing every day; for, in the fierce struggle that is ever going on for its possession, as an end, and not as a means to a higher end, men become more and more absorbed in the desire for its attainment, and, as a natural result, more and more acute in their perception of the means of attaining it. And the most eager and acute are not always the most conscientious in regard to the use of means, nor the most careful lest others sustain an injury when they secure a benefit.