The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-06-11
The UnseennIy ExtravaSances
Of the Times.

The mad extravagances of the day seem to be.
if anything, on the increase, and are calling
forth repeated protests from the press. There
arpelrs To be no end of the abuse of money.
The waste of greenbacks Is almost proverbial
among those who have suddenly acquired colossal
fortunes from contracts, political patronage, and
the sudden rise of securities of all kinds. We
are living in an age of extravaganza which puts
to blush the era of plethora which marked the
early days OF the gold discoveries On the Pacific
Coast. With you, however, who have n gold
basis 10 live up u and operate upon, the case Is
entirely different but the imitation OF the cur
rency here has produced the most prodigal results.
y man builds a marble stable on the rear of
his lot. at a cost of eight thousand dollars, and
fits up a private theatre over it. Another pays
eight thousand dollars for n pair of horses 10
drive on the road, for his pleasure and many
give from fifteen hundred to three thousand for
the same object. Another provides Il dinner for
a dozen Misunderstanding the superstition of the
unlucky thirteenth-and this simple dinner costs
one thousand dollars. y children party Is
given, in an uptown house, where every child is
clad entirely in dresses imported from Paris. An
American citizen purchases a house for over one
hundred thousand dollars, and tears it down, to
rebuild upon its site one yet more costly.
These are signs of the times-are they not evil
dences of a state of things unhealthful, feverish,
threatening TO the honest simplicity of our polit-
zeal life; and threatening not less evil to the ideas
and the principles of which that life has hitherto
been a fair exponent?
Is there nothing worthier than personal adorn-
ment? One man spends two hundred thousand
dollars upon a dwelling-house but he might
build with this sum Il long row of decent Gotta
ges. TO rent to people in moderate circumstances;
he might enable fifty or q hundred families of
working men TO live cleaniy, and respectfully IN
New York. and thus make himself a public BEN
efactor-and that without sinking his money
where he never can recover it.
Or, instead of dressing Il few children in silks
and jewels, and robbing them of the freshness
and charm of youth by these v~anities, why not
spend the money in sending homeless children to
comfortable farm-hOuses in the Vest?
In England, during the French war, useful en-
t~erprises of all kinds were originated and pros
pered. There was then, as with us now, an in
hated currency great fortunes were made by
speculative ventures, as here now. No doubt
there was extravaganza; but there arose at the
same time n spirit favorable TO useful enterprises
of many kinds-such rs we wish could obtain
amongst us. The citizen who wastes his gains
upon ostentatioush houses, furniture, dress or food,
commits a crime against his country.
All property and all incomes are measured by
a standard which is constantly expanding if
they change with it, there is the excitement OF Il
rapid apparent increase of wealth; if they re-
main stationary for any reason, there is 4 con-
slant appeal TO their possessor to join the general
movement. Sober people might let well enough
alone but to be stationary Is to be left behind.
and few can endure such complete isolation, to
say nothing of the difficulty of maintaining q
secure foothold amid the rushing crowd. While
nominal values are doubling so rapidly, and for
tunes piling up in such dazzling proportions, not
only is economy discouraged, but the slow gains
of industry are d~espised, and the wages earned,
however augmented through the scarcity of Ia
borers, seems paltry by the side of those grander
accommodations which are obtained with )ut the
drudsery of toil.-COr. Alta.