The Hawaiian gazette., 1880-11-10

THE present age is hard one to live in. One
looks back upon the last century in spite of the
vortex of war and revolution with which it closed,
period of philosophic calm, an age in which
everything, from earning an income to making
bow was done in deliberate manner; its very dan
ces were ostentatiously slow-what can equal this
studied statelness of the minuet Look back at
the quaint phraseology of the counting houses of
the time, the formality of the relations between
members of the same family, the quiet satisfac-
ton with which men lived and died upon the same
spot of land that they had been born on, the lack
of manufacturing enterprise, the bad roads, the
small and i'll found ships, and you will at
see what stolid, stupid, comfortable century
it was for the average man to live in. Now man
kind has to toll early and late to supply its exotic
needs Madam, who in former days content
to go foot, must now drive around in buggy
Miss, who wore cotton frocks till she eighteen
or more and was taught that her aim in life to
become the good mother of buxom family and
the ruler of comfortable home, must needs dream
of tarletan dresses and silks at thirteen and of
marrying wealth or title of some sort, half pay
lieutenant or a retired major, no matter what, so
long as he can tack some afix before his name,
or can have large balance at his banker. Master
must earn money quickly and so he rishes oil
when he is only half educated to pick up what he
can, with the result of producing narrow minded,
money grubbing race of youths. His money
gained, he spends it in ostentatious show, which
the before mentioned Miss when he marries her,
only too readily lends herself to keeping up. Such
is the standard of the world at the present time
and as we have said it is a hard one to live in.
Whether man wish it or no, once lie IS in with
crowd he must e'en go whittier the crowd sways
him. The most philosophically inclined must
therefore be carried away with the rush. and the
question is how they live their lives with COM
fort to themselves Many of the things which are
now deemed indispensable adjuncts TO a household
tial and comfortable, is very much more satsfact-
ory than the expensive gimcrack stuff, which peo-
pie require in their drawing rooms few friends
gathered together around simple every day board
will give more satisfaction than the most elaborate
dinner a. la Russo. dance among the young
folks as children after substantial tea would be
far more enjoyable than the "carpet dance" with
its claw hammer coats, its weak negus, its dry
sandwiches its calf sentimsntaities, and Its hired
music. Alas for the days when Aunt Mary used
to sit down to the piano Uncle Joe take his fd-
die and striking up merry time, set young and
old alike tripping few handsome dresses ought
to content matron far more than twenty fimsy
costumes. plain, vulgar pipe would be better
for pater familias than the cigars and insidious
cigarettes of the time. And yet it is for such
things that men works nowadays. LIE ieu ne
vaut pas la chandelle, man works too hard for
what he gets. We consider the present generation
as i'll rewarded for its pains. BY all means let us
go back to our beans and Bacon our bucolc sim
picity, our walking, our baking, our brewing, our
manner; let them spend less money and give their
heads an opportunity for enjoying their lives
which Is at present granted to very few. We con-
clude as We began-Life is very hard.