Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-09-15
Ambition for Show

one OF the most alarming elements in the
social lie OF our country, is the extravagance
OF the wealthier classes, which induces extray-
agance In other classes who can i'll afford il
All alike are eager to maintain good appear
ance, and this ill-judged ambition leads To
speculatlons, to dishonesty, and to forgeries,
to supply resources which ordinary industry
cannot furnish. An exchange has some com.
ments, worthy of consideration
What tendency there is in this American
world OF ours to value appearances rather than
realities, One-half of our families are occu.
pied constantly to keep up appearances. The
fault commences very early in the history of
our families. Our young mechanics or mer-
chants marry early, and it is we'll they should
do 50, provided they would be content with a
simple style of living, suiting their furniture.
dress, and other family expenses to their in
come onl y. But the young mechanic feels too
often, when he marries, that he must live in
the same style the bosses do. His wife, too.
frequently-a young, gay, dashng, thought
less girl-feels oven more ambition than he
does, and the pair starts in life with furniture
above their means. Everything then must
correspond, and dress and expenses of living
become extravagant. Then follows the inev.
table Bridget, whose waste, and board, and
wages amount to a large sum. Then COM
mences the lifelong struggle to keep up ap-
pearances. The struggle is hard one against
the wind and tide and current. The man may
work hard and earn much, but he and his
wife started wrong
For the first year, the wife should have done
her own work. She would have been the bet
ter for it. She should have been content with
palmer furniture, designed for use and not
ornament, and he should have been content
with less luxurious eating and drinking and
smoking. U, this struggle to keep up appear
snces IS terrible to young mechanic. 1t is a
hard, hard life to be all the time striving to
gain and to keep the front seats in society
when property docs not warrant 1t.
Inc young merchant too often makes the
same mistakes. His career his struggle, and
his end, will be similar to that of the mechanic,
upon a slightly more dangerous scale, and,
generally, with more ambitious wife There
Is wrong feeling about both husband and
wife, that their respectability and even their
success In business will depend upon the STYLE
they assume. The merchant is in more danger
OF shipwreck in Keeping up appearances than
the young mechanic. The work of the latter
furnishes an income known beforehand, while
the profits Of the former are uncertain The
former will likewise labor under the constant
temptation Of growing rich too fast, and will
strain his credit to keep up appearances as a
thriving merchant.
Young professional men have the same rock IS
before them in the voyage of life Many spend
tne,r whole existence in rowing against wind
ana tide- Their young wives, too, have more
amoition-more pride Of rank and station
and more OF the foolish notions Of idIeness and
luxury Few of them are fitted for their con-
dition, and they have the sad prospect before
them oil a struggle to keep up appearances.
w hen VIII men iearn to be contented with the
station In which God has placed them?