Among the stories told of the late Baron de Rothschild is one which details how a "change of heart" once came to his valet - an excellent fellow, albeit a violent "red."
Alphonse was as good a servant as one would wish to employ, and as his socialism never got farther than attending a weekly meeting, the baron never objected to his political faith. After a few months of these permissions to absent himself from duty, his employer noticed one week that he did not ask to go. The baron thought Alphonse might have forgotten the night, but when the next week he stayed at home, he inquired what was up.
"Sir," said the valet, with the utmost dignity, "some of my former colleagues have worked out a calculation that if all the wealth in France were divided equally per capita, each individual would be the possessor of two thousand francs."
Then he stopped as if that told the whole story, so said the baron, "What of that?"
"Sir," came back from the enlightened Alphonse, "I have five thousand francs now." - Warwick James Price.
