Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1878-06-27
fCALIFORNIA'S SPENDTHRIFr
HABITS.


have crept into Our Government and
society. There are two things which
have come down to us from the days
OF gold, and We could very well do
without either of them. The one is
reckless extravaganza; the other,
that queer specimen of humanity who
takes you by the button-hole ard be-
gins, ''When L came to this State in
40 or the spring of 80" The grim
destroyer is reforming the latter very
! fast in the only way 1t is possible,
viz. F.: by shutting off his wind; for,
so long us he has breath, SO long will
he bore you with the story of his past
glory, when he could throw slugs
(we mean gold ones) to the birds.
But the other is different matter
time only increases it, and death has
no power over it, and only gives it
an opportunity to show itself to ad-
vantage in long line of carriages, a
silver mounted casket, and all the
pomp and vanity which it seems nee
essary to display in taking a poor
soulless clod of earth to its last rest.
To such an extent has this thing been
carried that poor man can no longer
afford to die, whilst extravaganza has
taken from him the means of living;
and were it not for the free lunches
and occasional help from generous
friends. he would be placed in the
position of the boy in Toby Rosen-
thai $ picture Between Two Fires"
who, hanging by his hands from the
orchard wall, finds his retreat cut off
by bulldog, while the irate owner
advances upon him from the other
siJe of the wall. This is city of
spendthrifts, beginning with the reck-
less stock-broker and ending with the
poor newspaper man, who spends the
whole of his weeks earnings upon
the last thing in neck-ties. Men
have been known to ask their friends
up to drink and spend their last half
dollar, although they knew their
family was in want of bread. 1t
might be thought this man was a
drunkard. Nothing of the kind. He
probably only drank soda water. He
was only following the fashion, and
was merely thoughtless, reckless
Californian. The disease permeates
all classes of socletys 1t attacks
men, women and children alike.
Children in San Francisco spend more
on candy and playthings than grown
up people in other parts of the world
do in things they don't require; ana
the amount of money squandered in
children's dress is something awful
to contemplate. At children's ball
given here a few years ago, child
of 6 or Z years of age appeared in
dress which cost $4,000, and her
father was not a millionaire. The
laborer in San Francisco spends more
upon his living and dress than the
well-to-do tradesman in England, and
the consequence is that when hard
times come he goes to join Kearney
and the other communists on the
sand lot, and it is the example of the
rich which has brought him to beg
gary, and changed him from the hon
est laborer into the tool IN the hands
of a lot of INSCRIPTIONS demagogues,
who aim to make political capital out
of his Nretched condition, which was
brought about by a bad example and
his own folly. The clerk here spends
more than the merchant in England,
anG robs his employer to feed his ex-
travagance, and the wife of the clerk
who receives $3.50 per month, dresses
as we'll as the merchant who is max
ing $40, 900 per aDnum. The ladies
vie with each other in dress, the fur
niture of their equipages. The men
i'm the number and value of their hor-
ses, and the beauty and expense of
their mistresses and this causes a
state of dishonesty and immortality
painful to contemplate in this other
wise beautiful city. 1t must not be
inferred that this state of things is
peculiar to San Francisco. What
we say of this city may with equal
truth be said of any other large city
in the Union. Bank Presidents em-
bezzle, clerks rob their. employers,
Government officials steal, men COM
nit forgery and women adultery, all
to keep up this internal extrava-
gance and, unless there is great
reform in this, we need never expect
to see an end of the private and pub
lie immortality which so disgraces the
u. S. A. 1t is impossible to get hon
est representatives from among apeo-
Pile wholly given up to this vice.
The children suck it in. with their
mothers milk, are brought up and
educated in it, until it becomes Sec
ond nature, and the next generation
bids fair to be worse than the pres
ent.-San Francisco Newsletter.
A Brooklyn lawyer has been arrest
ed for throwing bundle of paper at
Judges head.
After circus parade, two small
hovs met on the street, One OF them,