The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-22
AMERICAN IDOLS.


body and the value set upon his various acts
OF munihcence. He mentions at the same
time the honors bestowed upon a live mil
lionaire; the ludicrous side of which, it is
true, appears to have been appreciated as
keenly in America as here. Mr.. Vanderbilt,
we all know, has made gigantic fortune,
and waged successful battles in the wars of
financial giants of New York. A series Of
statues commemorating the remarkable events
OF his life has therefore been erected to his
honor in the station of the railway Of which
no is undisputed master It may be owing to
our ignorance of Mr.. Vanderbilt's history, or
to our narrow conception of art, that we fail
to understand what actions of his can afford
very promising materials for the sculptor.
Mr.. Vanderbilt making an issue of new rail
road shares; Mr.. Vanderbilt applying to q
New York Judge for an injunction against
Mr.. Drew; or even Mr.. Vanderbilt presenting
steamboat to the United States Government,
do not strike our feeble imaginstions as being
specially suitable for embodiment in everlast-
ing marble.
However, when q new worship has been
invented, it only requires time to, discover an
appropriate set of symbols. The Israelites
showed remarkable facility in extemporizing
a golden calf and we should do great I'M JUS
tice to American ingenuity if we doubted
that they could find some method of erecting
hh blShlllChub Vi Ju0 ubJllT6
Of their worship. If they love to bow down,
as their detractors say, before the almighty
dollar the incarnation of that mysterious
power will soon have all becoming mythology
cal emblems. The Mayor Of New York en-
deavored to shadow forth the nature of the
new religion by declaring that Mr.. Wander
bilt combined in himself the attributes of
CrGsus and Tellus whom the Mayor appa-
rently takes to be two ancient gods.
NJ 4 n.
of greenbacks will perhaps look as we'll as a
handful of thunderbolts, as certainly they
produce more terrible effects.
We cannot laugh at such demonstrations
with perfectly clear conscience. We once
had railway king of our own, who was
thought worthy of testimonial, and who, if
his success had been as permanent, might
possibly have had as many statues as Mr.
Vanderbilt himself. If Americans worship
the dollar, we have a certain veneration for
the British sovereign; and perhaps it might
be urged that our zeal is inferior merely
because we are still in the polytheistic stage
and that we do not PROSTATE ourselves so un
reservedly before the millionaire inasmuch az
we have certain devotions to pay to rank and
responsibility. Even two bad idols would in
many respects be better than one. We have
no wish to say that the British nobleman is a
specially wise or admirable creature his sur
vival would not compensate us for the loss
of flaws and learning, wealth and commerce.
and something would he left in the country
even if the House of Lords were to be swept
away in the deluge which is so often threat
ened. There is much, too, that is contempti-
BILE enough in the court which il paid to it,
there are such things as 'snobs' and
''funkeys and 1t is not pleasant that our
language should have been enriched by the
necessity Of finding names for such species
of humanity. Yet there is, it must be fairly
admitted, certain negative value even about
the British aristocracy. Assuming for the
sake of argument. that they az are stupid proud,
and useless as the widest democrat would
maintain, the existence of certain social
hierarchy helps to keep up some useful tradi-
tions. A successful stock jobber or dry
goods merchant does not reach at a single
bound the highest position in the country
and find himself entitled to become
the cynosure of many million eyes. He is
made to feel that he has some tests to satisfy
beyond the possession of satisfactory
balance at his bankers. He has to acquire a
certain quantity of what generally passes for
education, and to gain some of that polish
which Mr. Carlyle estimated at so high value
in his remarks on the approaching Niagara.
An English Vanderbilt would probably find,
indeed, that society was inclined to deal
mildly with a gentleman Of such tangible
merits: but it would be bound in decency to
make certain requirements, and would at any
rate laugh at him behind his back if he did
not fulfil them. There is, of course, corre-
spending feeling amongst the cultivated
classes in America, but they have not tho
same amount of prestige to enable them to
enforce respect.
Anything which reminds us that mere
wealth is not by itself sufficient title for
admission to the seventh heaven Of society is
so far good thing. In the millennium we
shall reserve our highest honors for virtue
and intellect We shall only value wealth SO
| far as it has been won by honest labor and is
applied to good purposes and rank only as ii
may really indicate the possession of certain
degree OF early and ingrained refinement
But as we are at present some way from Q
state of perfection, there is some value in q
traditional standard which approximates more
or less roughly to implying the probable pos
session of such qualities,
The prominent position which the condi
tions of American society necessarily give to
men who rely so to speak, upon nothing bu
the brute force of enormous wealth, upsets
good many of the ingenious speculations o
political theorists The problem which De
Tocqueville treated with wonderful ingenuity
and fertility of invention might be state(
somewhat as follows:--Given a nationi in whicl
there is a constant tendency to equality il
wealth, position, and political power, wha
will be the effect upon the character and mint
of the individuals composing it? 1t IS plail
that, in some respects at least, American 80
ciety shows more and more decided diver
gence from this ideal. There is n
country in which the inequality of wealtl
tends to grow more rapidly; if the loves
stratum be at higher level, the elevation
which rise above 1T are enormous, and ten