The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-10-30

mas It's uses as well as abuses. IennySOn, In
his poem suggested by the Crimean war, emu
merates the evils of a long peace, and refers to
it as corrective Of all these, and rs infusing
healthy vitality into nation, although he is
| not equally faithful in giving us the other side
of the picture, where the fraudulent army con-
tractor would not BIO likely to shine by COM
parison beside the grocer with an unfortunate
habit of sanding his sugar. No great war ever
took place without exerting an influence upon
the society Of the country in or by which it was
| waged, and where the nation has been rich and
prosperous the effect has been always of a
salutary character. 1t is the tendency of
nations, and especially Of young nations, at
peace aad in the enjoyment of great CONNER
cial and territorial wealth, to relapse into ex-
travagance and cffeminacy. Native pleasures
pail so far upon the palate accustomed to the
qualification of every desire that exotic Injuries
alone suffice to satisfy that morOid craving
which at length becomes passion We, the
people of the United States, have cultivated
that foreign taste to an extent that, till re-
Gently, threatened the extinction of every YES
tige of our national character. We not only
did this, but entered into vulgar rivalry with
our neighbors in matters which were purely
| questions of taste and income. If we had
twenty thousand year we took Il mansion in
| Tie Fifth avenue, and kept carriages and gave
| dinners in style which we were determined
should not be surpassed by anybody with
| double that income. Our wives end daugh-
| ters-the first to set and the last to withhold
| the examp!c-would give an impetus to our
| own impulse towards reckless expenditure,
and convert themselves into walking monu-
| mcnts Of our own folly. We did not see III
| however, and rather liked the dash and magni-
| lcence which placed us beyond doubt within
| the cnved limits of the upper ten thousand.
| French silks-thc more costly the better;
| Brazilian damoDds-the purer the water the
greater their brlliancy; Cashmere shawls-the
more heavily embroidered the more snowy and
! Oriental; Partisan jewe!ry-the more modern
the more expensive. These were tie things,
with countless others Of similar character
ard price, that our mothers and sisters our
wives and daughters, insisted upon having ad
libit,ua and still they complained Of having no
thing to wear. We gave parties worthy, az we
| thought of Lord Palmcrston or the Chancellor
of the Exchequer; We were continually adding
| to our blood stock and wine stock, and trying.
but vanly, to attain the acme of everything first
class; we thought only millonaires good enough
for our daughters, and entertained some idea OF
finding titles for them in Washington or Eu-
! rope; and so long as we found the money to
| pay for all these vanities we never asked our
selves, how long will this state of things last?
| If we had only ten thousand year we were
determined not to be outdone by our friends
with twenty, and, like them, furnished a man
sion in Fifth avenue and kept our carriage. IL
| is true we found it difficult to make both ends
meet at the end Of the year, and were driven
pretty hard to meet our bills all the
year round; but what was that to the
satisfaction of appearing twice as rich
as we were? We cut dash at the United
States at Saratoga, and always made point OF
appearing at Newport Immediately afterwards.
We had as snowy livery as any one on the
avenue, and managed to give two or three balls
every winter which we flattered ourselves in
point of taste and elegance took the shine off
our neighbors over the way.
II we had only five thousand year we
did not like to see our style of living sur
passed by people that we thought worth no
moro than ourselves. We condemned their
vulgar extravaganza u little, and with an osten-
tatious show of superior taste took small man
sion in Madison avenue, where we priied our
selves rather upon being considered solid than
fashionable, although we never refused an inyi-
tation to a fashionable ball nor yet neglected to
,-;,, f,.l, IL
cluded within the range of our acquaintance,
We were able, small as our means We're to keep
brougham and give one or two parties during
the season. We had our crest which we discoy-
cred at a shop in Broadway, painted on the
brougham. and we prided ourselves upon the
aristocratc neatness Of the silver band round
the coachman's hat and the dark blue livery
with silver buttons. We got into debt con-
siderably towards the end, like many others,
and had to stop payment; but, fortunately, we
had been provdent enough in the high tide OF
our prosperity to buy the house and furniture
we lived in and assign it to our better half; so
we were not disturbed in our comfortable
abode during this financial crisis.
This is the way in which the ambitious in
our American Vanity Fair used to mar their
own happiness and pave the way TO their own
ruin by foolish social rivalry. Verify, we were
all snobs. We were aiming to be something
more than ourselves; and what good has it all
done us? Or, rather. what harm has it not done
uss Why should we have bowed our heads to
the craven image? Why have we made money
the suauu,n Joluaa of existence, the ultima H,u,e
Of human effort? Our standard Of taste has
been false, and we ought to feel abashcd at our
own worship of mammon and our own hollow
pretensons. We aped the lion and still re-
NAMED the monkey. We almost lost sight Of
the manly and womanly attributes Of our
nature, and strove to be as artificial as possible
We appeared to thinA foreigners better than
ourselves, foreign travel better than American
travel and, although democrats, were ayowed
admirers Of titles &C nobility We rospcce.