The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-07-11
CALIFORNIA; Spendthrift Habits.

The reform most needed in California
is in our extravaganza, which is not On
ly an evil in itself but is the cause OF
nearly all the abuses which 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 extrava-
gance; the other, that queer specimen
of humanity who takes you by the but
ton-hole and begins, "When | came to
this State in 40 or the spring 80" The
grim destroyer is reforming the latter
very fast in the only way it is possible,
viz: by shutting off his wind; for, SO
long as he has breath, so long will he
bore you with the story of his past glory,
when he could throw slugs 1--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 it
self to advantage in a long line Of car
riages, a silver mounted casket, and all
the pomp and vanity which it seems
necessary to display in taking 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 OCCASION
al help from generous friends, he would
be placed in the position of the boy in
Toby Rosenthal's 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 side of the wall. This is city of
spendthrifts, beginning with the Ieck-
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, al
though they knew their family was in
want of bread. 1t might be thought
this man was drunkard. Nothing of
the kind. He probably only drank So
da water. He was only following the
fashio i, and was merely thoughtless,
reckless Californian. The disease per-
meates all classes of society. Itattaeks
men, women and children alike. Chill
dren 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; and the
| amount OF money squandered in chill
dren's dress is something awful to con-
template At children's ball given
here few years ago, a child of or
years OF age appeared in dress which
cost 81 1000, and her father was not a
millionaire The laborer in San Fran
cisco 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 tue
honest laborer into the tool in
the hands of lot of unscrup-
ulous demagogues, who aim to
make political capital out of his wretch
ed condition, which was brought about
by bad example and his own folly.
The clerk here spends more than the
| merchant in England, and robs his en-
| ployer to feed his extravaganza, and the
wife of the clerk who receives $3.50 per
month dresses as we'll as the merchant
who is making $4,000 per annum.
The ladies vie with each other in dress,
the furniture of their their houses, and
the grandeur OF their equipages. The
men in the number and value of their
horses, and the beauty and expense of
their mistresses; and this causes a state
of dishonesty and immortality painful to
contemplate in this otherwise beautiful
city. 1t must not be inferred that this
state of things is peculiar to San Fran
cisco. What we say of this city may
with equal truth be said of any other
large city in the Union Bank Presi
dents embeZzle, clerks rob their employ
ers, Government officials steal, men
commit forgery and women adultery ALI
to keep up this internal extravaganza;
and, unless there is a great reform in
this, we need never expect to see an end
of the private and public immortality
which so disgraces the u S. A. 1t is
impossible to get honest representatives
from among people 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
second nature, and the next genera
ton bids fair to be worse than the pres
ent.-San Francisco NeWs- Letter.
MOST people breathe properly often
more by accident or instinct than by de-
sign: but, on the other hand. hundreds