The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-07-02
The Good Old Times.

lHC UUUU Olu lllIICSs
Some one having been telling of Mr..
Loder in London, who died lately leaving
the enormous fortune of $4,000, 600,
and the gorgeous monument of the Rhode
Island Spragues, which is to cost 81, 900, 900
and of the wondrous wealth of Stewart
and other shoddy magnates and million
aires, the Richmond Enquirer tells us how
people had big fortunes, and built fine
houses, and gave dinners, and drank fine
wine, and spent in other ways in the old
times, ere Loder was or Stewart named.
Thus it is that the Enquirer takes the shine
out of the nineteenth century:
Why, what is Stewart, or Belmont or the
Marquis of Westminster, to Ptolemy Phil
adelphus, of Egypt, who amassed a little
property of $3.50, 900, 900? And which of
our extravagant young ladies in these times
ever gave her lover, as Cleopatra did, a
pearl dissolved in vinegar (orundissolved),
worth $4, 900, 900? Then there was Paulina,
one of the ton in Rome, who used to wear
Jewels, when she returned her visits, worth
100000. Well, they boast of Stewards
"marble palace" ON Thirty fourth street
and Fifth avenue. We do not suppose
this house, which is about the best they
have in New York, cost more than half a
million dollars. Cicero who was poor
man, gave $3.50, 600 for his home, and Clo-
dius paid $3.50, 900 for his establishment on
the Palatine, while MESSIAH gave 81, 900, 600
for the house of Antony. Seneca, who was
Just plain philosopher like Mr.. Greeley,
was worth $120, 100000. Tiberius left a
property of nearly $120,0OO,OOO. Why,
they talk of mans failing in New York
for million as if it was big thing. Cas-
ar, before he entered any office-when he
was young gentleman in private life-ow-
ed $14, 900, 900, and he purchased the friend
ship of Quesor for $500, Mark An
tony owed 81 800, 900 on the Ides of March,
and he paid it before the Kolends of March.
This was nothing-he squandered $780,
900, 900 of the public cmoney-Major Hodges
defalcation being for the contemplate sum
of $450000.
And these fellows lived well. Esopus,
who was a play-actor, paid 100000 for q
single dish. Caligula spent $4,000 on 9
supper. Their wines were often kept fol
two ages, and some of them were sold fol
twenty dollars an ounce. Dishes were
made of gold and silver set with precious
stones. The beds of Heliogabulus were o.
solid silver his tables and plates were o.
pure gold, and his mattresses, covered Will
carpets of cloth and gold, were stuffed will
down from under the wing of the partridge
1t took $50, 900 year to keep up the dig
nifty Of Roman Senator, and some of then
spent $5,OOO,OOO year.
Cicero and Pompey dropped inn on'
day ON Luculius--nobody home but the
family, and that family dinner cost 1000
But we talk of population. We boast o
London and New York. Rome had pop
ulation of between three and four millions
The wooden Theatre of Scarurus containet
80, 600 seats the Coliseum built of stone
would seat 22, 900 more. The Circus Maxi
mus would hold 395, 900 spectators. Their
were in the city 1900 public baths, those O
Diocletian accommodating 8, 200 bathers
Even in the sixth century, after Rome ha
been sacked and plundered by the Goth
, and Vandals, Zachariah, traveller, assert
that there were 8S4 spacious streets, so go
den statutes of the gods, 46,097 palaces
18, O52 fountains, 8,7S5 bronze statues of til
emperors and generals, 22 great horses !
bronze, two colossi, two spiral columns, 8
theatres, II amphitheatres, 9,0s6 baths,9
a 800 shops of perfumes, 1901 prisons. "
Nor have we space TO refer to Thebes, 1
|, Egypt(which had population of $4,000
3 000), and that noble palace with It's gran
t columns, whose cornices we're inlaid wit
O ivory mountings or sheathed with beate
gold nor Alexandria, whose annual po
0 dues were 80, GOO, 600, and whose library,