The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-25
PLEASURE TAXING.

risms that have obtained considerable cur
rercy in the world is that which asserts that
no man is @ hypocrite in his pleasures Like
other popular sayings, 1t is derived from
very superficial observation of certain obvious
phenomena A man takes to drinking in spite
Of the clearest warnings of his probable fate; he
goes on drinking till he is utterly unable to
break the bondage which he has himself cre-
ated; at length he drinks himself into his
grave, though he has clearly foreseen his pro-
bable fate, and is willing to admit that his
conduct is utterly absurd, as well as exceed
ingly wicked. We say that he cannot be
q hypocrite, because his only apparent
motive is the satisfaction of an overpowering
appetite, and he cannot be supposed to have
encountered such evils knowingly to please
any one but himself. When man yields to
such an irresistible impulse, we must GER
tainly admit that there is something genuine
at the bottom of it. Nobody, it may be
granted, will make such sacrifices without
some very strong motive, which, in the
case suggested, is probably real craving for
some kind of stimulant Even in such q case,
however, there is certain mixture of reality
and sham: q man drinks, or begins to drink,
partly because it is the fashion of his friends,
and he wishes to attain distinction in the only
path which is open to him. 1t is difficult, and
for many people impossible, to rise above their
neighbors by intellectual or moral qualities, but
almost anybody who chooses to do it may
gain q certain kind of glory by unusual readi-
ness to destroy the coats of his stomach. 1t
frequently happens that drunkard is simply
o man of easily satisfied ambition, who takes
the readiest path to eminence, and swills
strong spirits because he cannot win glory
by more legitimate methods. The feigned
passion ultimately becomes a real one, but at
its commencement it may become as hypo-
critical as any other abnormal eccentricity.
The habitual drunkard may be the distortion
of village Hampden or q mute, inglorious
Milton, who has taken to the consumption of
beer instead of patriotism or poetry. Some
such reflection must have occurred to many
people who have stood upon Epson Downs dur
ing the past week. What proportions of the crowd
went there because they really liked it, and
what proportion because they only fancied
that they must like what so many other peo-
pie went to see? 1t is of course an inscruta-
BILE problem, and it is inscrutable precisely
because, of all the habitual falsehoods that
people tell, the most common are those which
concern their pleasures There would be
some sense in saying that no man is hypo-
crite in his business; because people are
ready enough to admit that they go to the
city or attend in chambers for many hours
daily, not because they like it, but because
they are bound by excellent reasons to
win their daily broad. But every man is too
proud to admit that he seeks his amusement,
although it does not amuse him, because
somebody has told him that it ought to be
amusing. The most familiar examples are
sufficient to establish the fact. Take, for
example, crowd at an evening party. Nine
men out of ten will frankly avow that they
- would have been much happier in their slip
pers, or at their club, smoking a cigar or
reading a new book. They go in obedience
to tyranny which has become proverbial,
though they cannot precisely analyse
II q. l. 4
which throng the Royal Academy.
1t would be liberal computation
to say that one man in ten has a real
taste for art, or could express any unassisted
opinion as to the merits of the rival pictures.
But we all profess rather to like it, than
otherwise and come home prepared to be
discriminating critics, and to talk as if we
had not yawned in spirit throughout our per-
ambulation and resolved to escape at the first
convenient opportunity. Such threadbare
truths, and it would be needless to quote
more, are sufficient to establish the fact that,
if we are hypocritical anywhere, we are hypo-
critical when we pretend to be enjoying our
selves; and that the aphorism we have quoted
may be set down with the equally prepos-
ferrous aphorism that there is no disputing
about tastes. There is nothing about which
people dispute so often and so keenly, and
there are no disputes which produce such
conscious sense of superiority in the persons
concerned. man who differs from us in
politics or theology must be wicked; those
who differ from us in matters of taste must
Be not only wicked, but fools; and, as gene
raj rule, we hate fools more than we hate the
wicked At any rate we despise them more
heartily, and contempt adds bitter flavor to
antipathies which would otherwise be COM
paratively harmless.
The philosophy of this curious phenomenon
would deserve some examination. Why is il
that we are 30 helpless when we are most left
to our own devices, and so given TO follow
example in matters which only concern our
selves? If we would analyse the crowd which
gathered last Wednesday at the Derby, we
should first have to strike out the small num-
ber who came because they knew something
about horse-racing, and the much larger
number who came to pick up living in one
way or other. The first class may be sup
posed to form the nucleus of the crowd, and
the last are the hangeis-on, predatory and
otherwise, who will naturally be found
wherever any vast number of human beings
are congregated together. But taking the
great mass who know and care little about the
proceeding which serves as a pretext for
their gathering, we have to inquire what is
the real attraction, and why they cannot find
anything better. The only positive reason
that is apparent is the pleasure of being in
a vast crowd for a certain number of
hours. One might have supposed that Lon
-doners, of all people, would have had enough
of that particular kind of amusement. Per
sons who can walk down the Strand every day
of their lives need surely take no particular
trouble to see a hundred thousand cockneys
in lump. The answer is, we imagine. that
it is pleasant to be in a crowd, simply because
....1 g. - Il