Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-06-18
ExTRAVAGANCE.

ExTRAvAGANCE.
The two leading characteristics of the present
age is the mpatence to get rich, and the e1trava'
CANT manner in which fine fortunes are spent. 1t
really appears that half Of mankind are grasp
ing and boarding up money without any object
and the other half spending it in mere frivoities.
The miser is detestabe character in himself, yet
were there not scattered through the land this
close-6sted, fnt-sknnng class, to act as counter
irritants or anti-spasmodcs, the wealth OF the
country would be squandered so recklessly and
prodigally, that universal bankruptcy would be the
prevailing cry This extravaganza is the more
since it RACES in free government
% republic which boasts of its conservatism and
its democratic and puritanical elements. 1t was
one of the blessings which patriotic foretath-
ers imagined they were securing us, that with the
overthrow of titled nobility, and the ponderous
trappings of the aristocracy, q new order would
be introduced where simplicity of manners would
prevail, and individual merit graduate the stand
ing of every one. This is the glory of republican
ism and the crowning beauty of the democratic
idea. But the tendency of the age, if not anti
republican, is certainly antidemocratic. Wealth
must ever have its influence; is puerile to imag
inc otherwise. 1t has a legitimate power under
every system of government, and should have.-
But when it over-steps the limits to which the e.
economist assigns it and aspires to rule the world
and bend genius and intelligence at its will, it
becomes dangerous element-especially danger
GUS to a democratic government
knowledge has been sententiously termed po~'
er. but when knowledge itself becomes venal and no
longer competes with wealth-the palm Of supe-
riority-the consequence is, that without any op-
Grafton of law, dc facto order of nobility arises,
more odious than in older countries, where merit
and worth have ennobled family and many OF
the ancestral virtues are transmitted through q
lineage long. In such system there is some
thing that strikes the fancy. Around it the hues
of romance have been so entrancingly thrown,
that for moment, we lose sight of the oppression
and misery which supports its splendor and mag
nifcence. Republicanism, however, was to ,des'
strov the entire system and institute perfect E.
quality, with merit as the sole claim to pre-emi-
ueuce. it's useless to say that it has failed to
accomplish this object. 1t has only substituted
the nobility of wealth for the nobility of merit
It has taken away O plausible pretence for ty-
rannical system, and substituted one more op-
pressve in its operations and more degrading in its
final consequences.
And what are those consequences The most
alarming consequences is, that integrity, merit,
magnanimity, talent-everything that adorns and
ennobles man-loses all attractiveness, and virtue
is no longer regarded as sclfrewarding. When
such is the case, an inordnate desire for riches Mt
once seizes all classes. Riches in any way-the
shortest way-is the universal motto. Wild specu-
lations, every species of fraud, loose morals and
general venality, follow as secondary effects
And in this way We may account for the apparent
paradox, that an inordnate craving for, and e1-
trayagant waste of wealth are the prominent char
acterstics Of the age Those who have not the pre-
cious boon are forced to keep up appearances or
fall back into pebian insigni6cance. Those who
have it, in order to magnify their wealth and in
crease their influence, make display to which the
nobility of the old world are strangers. In the
following extract from Northern paper, the e1-
travagance of the age is ucidly traced to some of
its ruinous consequences.
"More than four .sevenths Of the marriages in
Massachusetts, are among the foreign-6orn. Why
is It? For the most simple reasons: the foreign,
born can afford to get married, and the native
born cannot; and this must be, so long as our ex-
trayapant mode of life continue. In social life
there never was people tending to deeper and
more destructive social corruption-and that is
most evident from the records of all the ccults,
and the columns of all the misrepresentation A
mericaps. Our fathers used to tell of the profit
pacy of Paris; their children tell of the mysteries
of New York; city not far behind any in Eu'
rome. And making proper allowances for size,
how far is New York ahead of our other cities
and towns? Once was the time when q wife was
a "help meet" now, in thousand Of cases, you
can change the "meet" to ''eat," and make thread
more truthfully.
We boast of our system Of education; We have
female high schools, female colleges, female med
ical schools, and female heavens. Our girls are
refined, learned, and wise; they can sing, dance,
play pianos, paint, talk French and Italian, and
all the soft languages write poetry, and love like
Venuses. They are ready to be courted at ten
years. and can be taken from school and married
at fifteen, and divorced at twenty. They make
splendid shows on bridal tours, can coquette and
Airt at the watering places and shine like angels
at winter parties. But Heaven be kind to the
poor wretch that marres in the fashionable cir
cles. What are they at washing floors? Oh, we
forgot; nobody has bare floors now-how vulgar
that would be! What are they at making bread
and boiling beef? Why, how thoughtless we are
to be sure they will board, or have servants
What are they at mending old clothes? But there
we are again; the fashions change so often that
nobody has old clothes but the rag.men and the
paper-makers now Whatare they at washing ba-
bies' faces and pinning. up their trousers! And
here is our intolersble stupidity once more; hav-
ing children is left to the 1rish What lady thinks
of having children about her now? or if she is so
unfortunate, don't she put them to wet-nurses to
begin with, and boarding-scsools afterwards? ?
We repeat-we have come to point where young
men hesitate and grow old before they can decide
whether they can marry, and afterwards keep
clear of bankruptcy and crime. What IS the con-
sequence? There are more persons living single
lfe-are there more leading virtuous life? 1t
ia time for mothers to know that the extravaganza
tbey encourage is destructive of the virtue of their
children: that all the foolish expenditures making
to rush their daughters to matrmony, are, instead
of answering that end, tending to destroy the in
stitution of marriage altogether
-<>Ae~-
THE ExAMINATIONi
In the Female College is progressing finely;