The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-04-18

islatures convened in barns. In garments
there may be richness to the extent of .
chastened and cultivated taste, and in the
halls of state solid costliness and wealth
of art corresponding with the opulence Of
the nation and the tastes of the people.
But the error is made in confounding
great principles Of government, and the ma
jestic simplicity which becomes them, with a
cheap, stlnted, vigorously economical style
of living; in presuming the social life to cor
respond with the form of municipal govern
ment, and to be governed by it. All that is
nonsense, and worse. Because man be-
lieves in the equality of human rights, does
it therefore follow that he should eat black
bread and wear wooden shoes? Ii he can't
buy any other and honestly pay for them, he
has no business to eat or wear other, but ii
/ he can do so, his notions about government
do not prohibit the enjoyment of white bread
or patent leather. On the contrary, we
prescribe another limit, and that is, the extent
of his means, the security of his business,
and the provision against future disasters.
Circumscribed by sound and reasona-
BILE judgment in respect of these considera-
tons, we like to see the indulgence Of what
are called the ''luxuries" of life, and we
would encourage them. For what is wealth,
accumulated? Is it solely to increase the
pile of yellow earth as high as it can be
reached ? On the contrary, beyond the de-
mands Of q business, which no able-bodied
man has right to be without, and reason
able provision against contingencies, is there
any object to accumulate wealth. and ought
not all overplus to be expended in charities
and on the means of rendering life pleasant
and happy? Beyond the mere existence,
with these qualifications, are not these the
very purposes of wealth? So we believe,
and have no fear Of the consequences. If
man is able, let him build fine house, let
him lay out magnificent grounds, let him sur
round himself with oil the treasures of ma
ture and art, let him possess all the means
which can minister to the enjoyment Of
healthy refinement and a rightly cultivated
nature. We like to see a free style Of soci-
al life, with due regard to ones means, and
his duties to others. We like to see one
who is able, gather about himself fountains
and flowers and statuary and paintings, rich
architecture, beautiful furniture, and costly
fabrics. We despise the mean, narrow liver
who lives not to enjoy and to bless, but sole
~ to heap dollar on dollar, to add lands to
lands and mortgage to mortgage, whose on
ly enjoyment is in the accumulation Of
wealth, and whose only ambition is to die q
millionaire. Such spirit, the spirit Of ra-
pacity, inordinate love of gain, of over.
reaching chicanery and all-deyourng speeu-
lation, with its cold, hard, Shylock men, re-
publics have more to fear from than the most
luxurious living within the means Of honest
payment.
We are glad our republic has opened so
wide the door to opulence and liberal life.
We are glad that it has brought what are
denominated 'sluxurles' within the means of
so many. We hope to see the number who
can enjoy them constantly increased. We
would be glad If it were possible that all
could enjoy them,- they should become
so common that the very significance of the
term which now describes them should be
host. We should account it one of the chief
est blessings of the republic, if it brought
the means Of education, cultivation, and re-
fined enjoyment within the reach Of all.
While the public happiness would be increas-
| q lrh tsp Of . ha
easier to educate the people in the right i'm
provement Of their advantages, than to bat
tie, as we now do continually, against the
prejudices of ill-educated and coarse ma
lures, the proneness to grasp these enjoy
ments unlaygfully, and the tendencies to in
ordinate righteousness and hard and heart
less life.
Our editor might have learned profta-
bic lesson by rejecting whether it was luxu-
ry, or tlIe march of commercial empire far
ther to the west and north, which caused the
declne of Venice, and by questioning wheth-
or, II the average relations of the world, and
80 tl4e demands of trade, had remained the
same, trade would not have provided abun-
da ntly the human agencies necessary for its
tt ansaction. 1t is trade that
"sows cities like shells along the shore"
and the march Of trade, not luxury, com
monty DEGREES their decline, especially with
respect to great marts, and with this lessor
learned, his objurgations against luxur,
would have been less piteous.
GTThe Providence r. ID Conference O
the Methodist Episcopal Church, at its re
cent session, passed resolutions condemninJ
the pro- slavery leanings Of the Methods
Tract Society publications, and declarin,
their purpose to withdraw nil further aid AM