Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-05-20
Extravaganza.

It has become so customary to declalm
about the extravaganza of women, that
popular opinion has almost quite forgot
that men are spendthrifts too. We admit
that is proper enough to decry diamonds,
French laces, Indian shawls, and other
luxures of the sex, when the wearers of
these articles exceed their means in buy.
ing them. We do not deny that many
failure may be traced, remotely, to the
extravaganza of wife. We challenge
no journal for asserting that our imports
are excessive, partly on account of the
fondness of our women for needless for
eign luxuries. But are the ladies the
sole offenders? Have men no hobbies
on which they squander thousands? Do
husbands never waste money? Who
pay for the wine and brandies which make
so important figure in our importations |?
Let the truth be told. Of the two sexes,
ours is, perhaps, the more extravagant.
Is it either honest or chivalrous, therefore,
to abuse the ladies, when the men are the
greater spend-thrifts of the two?
Take the case of o family Of wealth.
The wife likes g fine equipage, elegant
furniture, and rich dresses; she gives
costly parties in the winter, and goes to
Saratoga or Cape May in summer she
has her bill at jewelers., her credit at
fashionable dry goods store, her seats
at the opera. But what, meantime, is her
husband doing? If an epicure, his wine
bill amounts to thousands; if picture
fancier, his gallery is continual drain on
his purse; if he has mania for building,
he is forever buying town-houses, or
erecting country.seats. Are horses his
hobby? lie is never happy unless trading
for new span, showing off fast trotter,
or betting at some private race-course.
All the hobbies, however, are venial, COM
pared with what which some have for
speculating in stocks. Where thousands
are squandered by fashionable women on
French luxuries, tens Of thousands are
wasted by men in this favorite pursuit OF
the idle rich. In families of fortune, nay,
even in families of moderate. means, the
extravaganza of fathers and husbands
keeps even pace with that of wives and
daughters.
Among the mechanics and operatives
it is the same. The man who makes ten
dollars week spends mora money on
tobacco and beer than his helpmate, if he
has ore, on her personal luXuries. She
works, too, quite as hard as he does. In
household affairs, moreover, her economy
is the slleetanchor of the family. Never,
or rarely, does she indulge in what is
called pleasure. Yet, if she spends a
trihe on a ribbon, it is pronounced ex
travagance; if she asks for week in the
country, ruin is predicted. The women
have not had fair play. 1t is the old
story of the lion who wrote his biography
for we men make newspapers and public
opinion, and we have praised ourselves
at the expense of the other sex. Is it
not time that some Of us were more i'm.
partial! Both sexes, we are free to ad.
nit. spend quite too much. But in ap.
porlioning the sin of extravaganza, the
men have heretofore laid all the blame
on the women. 1t has been weakness
of our sex, however, brave as we think
ourselves, always to shirk our share OF
ihc guilt for even Adam, when he had
eaten the apple, was coward enough to
say, the women tempted me and did
cat" And Adam's descendants, true tn
their blood, charge all the extravaganza
10 women.