Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-09-11

DeplOrable Condition OfEn-
glish SOciety-WantOn Ex-
travagance of the Women.
From the London Times

travagance of the Women.
From the London Times.
It must always be with pain and
delicacy and hesitation that we
make an allusion to those who are
supposed to be less able to defend
themselves, and the more under
just authority, as well, it must be
added, as also the most sinned
against. But one remark must be
made. Even on the most superb
cial survey of the society, whether
in the great furnace of the metro
polls or in the lesser fires of pro-
vincial and rural life, who can shut
his eyes to the lamentable fact that
the gentler and kindlier sex have
a very great deal to do with that
boundle5s and ruinous extrava-
gance which introduces all the vi
ces, and disables all the virtues
even to decay and extinction 1t
may be the necessity or the duty of
some to spend princely fortunes in
princely pomp and luxury; if so,
they are only to he pitied for the
difficulty of doing it gracefully,
and redeeming material waste
with personal refinement. But in
this great town, and each season
more than the last, there are thou
sands and thousands who are ma
nifestly spending far more than
their circumstances will allow
For very much of this deep, wide
spread, and still spreading evil the
women are answerabte. 1t is they
who dress at rate far beyond
their income /; they who insist on
the best houses In the best neigh
borhood they who must have
equipages for all uses, times, and
places they who cannot abate
their manifold requirements even
when the family increases and no.
bier cares should take the place of
childish things.
Of course, the men have their
besetting sins and their pet extra
vagances, sometimes very costly !;
and they have often the still great
er fault of not explaining their Pc
cuniary affairs to their wives with
manly candor or common bust
ness-like accuracy. They do not
make the wife cOnfidant and a
felloW-counsellor. But there can
not be doubt that in the great
majority of houses the lady knows
quite enough to see. with a very
little reflection, that she is driving
her husband and her family into
straitness and embarrassment,
with the risk of ruin.
People must have very many
and very good acres, or very good
investments indeed, to be able to
spend often the rental of good
estate in single entertainment, a
dressmaker's or an uphols.erer's
bill, at a fashionable watering
place, Il prolonged Continental
tour, a necklace, or some other toy.
Yet women are such creatures of
rivalry and display that they cam
not help a sort of triumph over
those who are less spirited. and so
are continually the foremost to in
flame a pernicious rivalry. What
can their husbands do? They sub
NIT, perhaps. They sulk, perhaps.
They more commonly cast about
for ways and means, and as they
hear and learn more, they are
more apt to take counsel from de-
spair, and give themselves up to
the stream in which they are al
ready floating helplessly. They
cannot be worse than they are !;
they may be better. So they spec
ulate-that is they gamble. They
soon find they are victims, and set
it down to their simplicity or to
their scruples. BY and by they
make the discovery that in such
an affair it is better to be at the
head than at the tail; better to be
on the right side of the wall bet
ter to be in the ring than an out
slider. So they press inward, give
and take condolences, and in time
are miliionaires, or bankrupts and
nUslnC