The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-19
E1travaxanee OF our People.

From an excellent article in the New
York Times, We quote the following:
From the fact that landlords are
charging and readily obtaining rents
of 81 OO0 to 81. 600 per annum, that mag
nincent marble warehouses are being
built on every hand, and that pictures
by foreign and native artists are easily
sold at 5000 and SIS, 900, that incomes
in the hundreds OF thousands are nu-
merous, and those of millions not mn
frequent it may be Inferred that we are
a very fortunate and successful people.
or else that We are leading an unhealthy
I and unsafe life. In certain lights, both
views Of the subject are correct. We
know OF several quiet merchants who
hold Government securities by mil
lions, others employ vast retinue of
clerks, statesmen and porters, others
count their profits annually by
amounts that in former days would
have been fortunes in themselves, and
others spend and can afford TO spend
more money in month than their pa
rents handled in life time. The yonng
marriageable men of the day sniff at
the idea of assuming matrimonial re-
sponSibilities with an income of less
than 8. 600 per amman, and young la
I dies turn uptheir noses at n trousseau
! costing less than 1900. Our fathers
I were content with moderate incomes,
! and lived comfortably on still smaller
! outgo; our mothers married and manag-
! ed 10 live well enough without ward
robes fit for n princess, and together
! they contrived to keep house respeeta-
! bly,, costly, and TO their entire sAfisfac-
! tion. The change that has come over
! the very essence of our existence is as
unfortunate as 1t is radical. Asa people,
we have emerged from the original
simplicity that characterized the living
{ of our forefathers, and we are far along
upon the highway of extravaganza,
and tending rapidly to decline, socially
! if not politically.
Let US look for another moment at
I the absolute extravaganza of our times.
7 The dresses of the ladies are not only
/ singular in construction but vastly eX-
penSive, The little jigmarees that they
I wear on the tip-top oftheir pretty little
! heads are as extreme in price. as alb
surd in size. The coils, curls, water
! falls, back nair, front friZzes and wavy
witcheries with which they destroy the
/ symmetry of the head and disease the
4 scalp, are as outrugeously expensive as
they are undeniably false. Every ar
/ ticle of apparel, from laces TO gloves,
from boots to parasols, from earrings
to mouchoirs, from perfume to hair
pins, is rated at an absurd figure by
Inc dealer, ana PAID Tor with praise
worthy serenity by somebody. So far
as our observation extends there is
nothing used by man, woman or child,
in tha way of food, clothing, ornament
or utility, that is appraised at rea-
sonable rate by the manufacturer
dealer or owner.
Rents are quadrupled. 1t is all well
enough for US 10 theoriZe about the ne
cessity of a reduction in rents; land
lords don't believe in the necessity,
and insist upon an increase. And so
we so from step to step, from height TO
I height, and there seems no prospect OF
relief. 1t may be that dry goods will
follow the example of -four, that butter
and lard will emulate coal, and that in
some halcyon day of Spring rentals
will remember 10 be just; but we are
not over sanguine in that regard, and
we very much fear that our young men
Will continue to expend their means
recklessly, and that our Young women
will continne to dress eXtravagantly,
and our schemes to go on swimmingly,
until the inevitable crash lets us ali
down, and affords renewed opportunity
for second beginning and regeneTated
career.''