New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-03-12
our business classes, and VIII


sptnt .fter il is once acquired; when We see the
shameless o.teptsrion which reigns in our d yell
inss and furniture; the boundless luxury which
tle.ides II our entertainments the premsture
eyKofure OF our ycuug men to the contact Of vi
cious aid rotten civilization; and, what is ~orss
tsn all, the apparently reckless abandonment
which our fashionable fathers aud mothers make
of their das gbters, - all the Casualties of pro-
uiscuoUs scqusintancesbip: then We feel taat
our most urgent necessities are social rather than
political ard that 10 reform but that which 81
the same time relieves US of prodigscy and waste
in the spper classes, will avail 10 relieve US also
of ruff snism in the lower The spirit Of both
classes is the same spirit OF vulgar ostentatIon:
the only difference being in the resources they
respectively possess for it's display. Giye Bill
Poole the wealth of the fashionable Mr.. b., snd
be would have been slowly done t. desth in the
pided salons Of the Filth avenue, instead Of beng
fouy shot in thrd.rate eating. house, Or turn
John Morrissey into a millionaire, and We Var.
rant You that he will instantly equsi any Lncu-
lus o. them al ia the pfofuson Of his banqueis
ard the tswdry tplendor of bis town and country
residences TIE end or aim of the respective par
ties is strictly one the acquisition of ccnven-
tiousl notorety; the difference is. that one party
seek. to accomplish this end by the lawless ex-
penditure Of money tie other by the lawless ex-
peudlture Of muscle. The inward genius OF the
FIfthayelue is as essentially pueilistic that Of
Church and Mercer. cts; only the fist in the
former case is so skifuly disguised under Pa
ris bonboDs snd SlTasbUrg pats, that We who
receive the weight Of it seldom feel the blow,
End Indeed are sp. to coyet the mufiied insult IS
on honor.
The great Mr. p, who engineers all our fash-
ionsb weddings aud funerals, expressed himself,
the other dag, as very eravely discouraged by
several nsgrent "bresches of etiquette, as be
termed them. which had recently fallen uoier
bis cultivated observation. 1t appears that a
grand ball had been given up town, at which the
foreign custom of announcing the guests as they
entered was Observed aud Mr.. Il, Of course,
was the portly Zephyr upon whom that sonorous
function deyoyed. "Ah, Sir" said the illus
trous Field. Marshal to a friend of ours, "you
"baye nO idea of the numerous breaches Of eti
"quette which took place the other evening at
"Mr. 8" "Indeed' replied our inform
ant "for example !" "Why," said the busy
i, Il presume that no less than dozen times
lin the course of the evening, when called out
in my lOudest tones the name of some we'll
known person whom saw descending the
stairs to enter the drawing room, the startled
nominee, instead of burrying forward toward
Il
"tinen,ly turned upon BIZ, teel and fed, dIsmsyed
Ito the topmOst intricscies of the house whence
"DothiDg could subsequently, disedge him but
- the promise of my soothing and unconditional
silence" Our friend could not fail, of course
to be diverted with Mr.. BIS distresses, but hs
immediately proceeded himself still further to
vex that nuptial and sepuchral soul by the hint
OF less venial "breaches." What shall we
"ssy, thou capital b of certain sadder events
(Which, if report speaks truth, took place on
the same occasion! Through the lax cere-
moDial which no " guards the avenues of Upper
Tendon, did not more than one genteel thief
get &C mission TO that superb house, and al in
PRODUCTION to it's hostess! And did they not,
"iD the course of the evening, contrige to strip
bedroom and boudoir of much of their portable
''a1d precious knickknackeyl Tell u.s. o
CELESTIAL AMI iuneresl B tell us the essential
difference between ball ia the Fifth avenue and
"a free.and-easy in Mercer-st, if such are the
smanners that cbsrac serize them both ~
The fact, as we apprehend it, is, chat neither
our Fifth.ayeoue aristocracy nor our Mercer-st.
democracy, properly and permanently, belongs to
the social development which is to distinguish
this continent. They are respectively a mere
tran slent scum and sediment of that trimming
cup Of liberty which this nation is called upoa to
drink; and the day accordingly must eventually
come as that liberty gradually clarifies itself, or
assumes an orderly guise in which they shall
both disappear. We cabnot believe that man
kind in these historic latsudes is again going to
try the experiment. Of social inequality. We
Garnet believe that the world needs sny further
evidence of the evils of caste and class among
men, with the long page Of European history
fairly open before it. And we accordingly lsok
TO toe New World to exhibit a deeper bond
among men than has hitherto come to the surfice
the bond Of an exact aud rigid fellowship or
equality. We do not expect, of course, ever 70
zee natural equality asserting itself among men
an equality of natural talents and endowments
for nature abhors equality. But we fully expect
to see the recognition of thorough spiritual
equality among them an equality which
will exemplify itself in universally
diiused sbihty to DO good, or to perform some
social use, and which shall therefore forbid any
man to lead an idle or vicious life, under penalty