"Who has it made poorer?"

"Dozens of people. You may always take it for granted, when you
see a tavern-keeper who has a good run at his bar, getting rich,
that a great many people are getting poor."

"How so?" I wished to hear in what way the man who was himself, as
was plain to see, a good customer at somebody's bar, reasoned on
the subject.

"He does not add to the general wealth. He produces nothing. He
takes money from his customers, but gives them no article of value
in return--nothing that can be called property, personal or real.
He is just so much richer and they just so much poorer for the
exchange. Is it not so?"

I readily assented to the position as true, and then said--

"Who, in particular, is poorer?"

"Judge Hammond, for one."

"Indeed! I thought the advance in his property, in consequence of
the building of this tavern, was so great, that he was reaping a
rich pecuniary harvest."

"There was a slight advance in property along the street after the
'Sickle and Sheaf' was opened, and Judge Hammond was benefited
thereby. Interested parties made a good deal of noise about it;
but it didn't amount to much, I believe."