Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-08-26
rFrOm the New York EvsniDg Psat.l
COrruptIHg Influence OF Fashionable
Display.



One page Of one Of the morning Jour-
malls Of Saturday last was filed with ac-
counts of the festivities going on at Sar-
atoga, Cape May, Newport, Nahant,
Lake George and other watering places.
Turning to the next page the reader
found an account OF the sheft Of three
hundred thousand dollars by an obscure
bank clerk On one page we are told of
the beautiful forms and the elegant toll
cts of fashionable women; on the next
of the crime and debaachery Of clerk
and his hazlots Here are dances and
dinners, there disgrace, despair and
suicide
Is there no connection between the
two2 Is il merely BY accident that we
find 10 the same sheet two euch pictures
Of life7 Or 10 there not rather q pro-
found warning to be drawn from the
colloeation7 We hate the vice which
is s4 so nakedly before us--may we not
as well consider what produces itf
There waa q time when women were con-
tent to live plainly, 10 work patiently, to
await contentedly, the sure IL moderate
rewards Of industry and temperance. IL
is fortunate for us, as a people, that the
great majority of Americans have still
this patience and contentment II is
not true, What the sensation journals
| would persuade US, that our society is
made up of such glittering and foolish
butterflies aud depraved hawks, as figure
| in the fashionable chronicles and shine
at balls and in the gambling hells.
But it 10 true that large and growing
class Of Americans make haste to be
| rich, and delight to spend their quickly
gotten means in unrepublican display
and vice. And when Smith, speculator,
ambitious to dazzle hotel walters and
chambermaids, shines with his Aashily
dressed wife at Saratoga, and dsports
himself before the world as eli elegant
and dissipated idler, need he be sur
prised that his or his neighbor's clerks
some day walk of with his money, ans
srS fS,~s''i 20 have been initiating theii
master at his expense in the humber
concert saloon3 Like master Iikl
man" is an old and true saying. Tht
young man who comes from the countr,
with correct and even puritanical ideas
sees his employer driving fast horses
drinking costly wines, living extrava
gantly in every way, and how long 10 i
before he too is infected with the desire
to live at the same rate?
" But he ought not to be-" Ought he
not7 He looks to his superiors, 70 those
whom he knowa to be older and 1elieves
to be wiser than himself, for example
Is he wroag7 Perhaps--he 10, but he IL
only mortal-his blood is fred as easy
as his masters and the alluring picture
Of life q pleasures, which that mRstel
presents to him, too surely wins him u
other hopes and expectations than thoss
with which he came to the city.
/" But because there 10 virtue shall
there be no cakes and ale9' Truly, bu
let it be cakes and ale, and not cham
pagne, not riotous living, not useless
: aud tasteless extravagance in every par
of life; let il be plain, substantial, sensi
BILE enjoyment, not pell-mell racing al
ter the pleasure, and feVerish draining
to the dregs of every cup. Let il b
steady, sober, temperate enjoyment Q
honorably won leisure, not the senseles
and shameful display and extravagsnc
,, which disgraces the mobiles Of Q mon
archy in the esteem Of the people, an
which is doubly disgrsceful in re
public.
: "While the pleasure-seekera run rio
= at Saratoga and Cape May, we shA
continue to hear of clerks, aud othe
humber pleasure-seekers, taking thei
. course at the expense Of their employ
ers. The two phenomena are necessar
" coneocted. As one grows so viii th
other. We cannot draw the line; "
/ &hsa H.
derly life at City thousand per annan
and this one, his servant, shall remain
a model Of all the virtues at twelve hul
dred 1t is the masters walk that form
the servant, and IL is the masters ey
that makes him faithful. Opportunil
and importantly are too strong (,
average virtue, and cakes and ale ceal
to satisfy when they are despised b
g. those above us.
Nor let the fashionable rsvelers chin
D that they win the esteem OF the publ
o by their foolish ostentation. It 10
be mercy of the reporters that thsy col
:, ceal, in initials, the names of tho
whose vulgar and unseemly display a
u tracts their praises. To print the nam
e. in full would be to bold them up TO q
GOAASAAFt oA hhC ShCAt Au1S1 OA pCOFA
to point the finger of scorn at theI
For, whatever may be thought TO Il
contrary, there is, in the Americl
, mind, strong love for, and admiratiS
of simplicity; belief that plain eours
and frugal life are best, not only f
4. the individual but for society, and tn
the way of life which prevails this ye
. at the prominent watering places,
- anti-republiesn, injurious and disrepI
able. Il needs but another SUNNI
r like the present to drive all self-respe
IA ing people from Saratoga Already Q
best citizens are seeking quieter resor
They do not like to expose their sc
y and daughters to the temptations,
~, acquaint them with the modes of i
Is, or TO place them in the company Of thS
ss. who take the lead in the prevalent fa
~ ionable riots They prefer quieter Q
ty more rational enioyments for themsel'
and families.