The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-06-16
COMPARATIVE COST OF LIVING

For Il number of years past there has
been general and gradual increase of
personal and household expenses in fami-
lies of ali degrees of wealth and social
standing. One by one new wants have
arisen, making new and larger demands
upon the resources of the pocket In no
other particular is the contrast between
the present and the past greater or more
marked than in the style and cost of liv-
ing.
The plain, simple, but substantial fare
of the olden time has been suppressed
ell by the production of viands and costly
dishes, which almost rival the famous
feast of pagan antiquity, when to eat,
drink and carouse constituted one of the
principal objects of life.
In this increase simply result of reck-
less and thoughtless extravaganza on the
part of the people? or is it one of the
inevitable necessities growing out of an
advanced civilization? 1t is usually at
tributed to the former cause, but little
reflection will convince almost any mind,
we think, that the last mentioned cause
is really the more potent of the two.
The word civilization may be taken to
express or embody the combined results
of intellectual and moral growth. The
simplest form of life is the nomadic or
wandering stage of development.
The desert Arab, the American Indian
as he was before the advent of the white
man on this continent, the uneducated
peasantry in many parts of Europe, and
the natives of Africa, may be instanced
as examples of this class.
Their range of thought and desire is
exceedingly limited, their tastes simple
and their wants few. \ tent OF rude hut
| for habitation, garments enough to
shield tLem from climatic changes, dog
OF horse for service and companionship,
and some kind of weapon for hunting
and fighting, constitute about all they
need or care for as means or instruments
of life. To eat, sleep, hunt and go to
war make up their principal occupations.
OF course, the cost Of living in this
primitive stage of Development is exceed
ingly small. The existence and uses of
money with such people are either I'M
known or very much restricted But
take any one of these classes designated
and bring them up into higher state of
civilization, and their personal and house
hold expenses will at once begin to null
tiply in axact proportion to their eleva-
ton or advancement.
The philosophy of such movement
would seem to be that the physical ma.
ture of mankind everywhere strives to
keep pace with the improvement in the
upper departments OF being.
A new light and knowledge flow into
the brain and expand and quicken the
feelings, these internal forces of life seize
upon their lower and external concomi-
tants and pull them up to their new level.
Consequently, new and varied physical
wants arise, wants in regard to eating
and clothing, which necessitate an in.
creased expenditure. And thus the cost
of living multiplies with the area of in
tellectual requirements and the cultiva
ton of finer and nobler feelings in the
heart.
There is, no doubt, great deal of un
necessary and wasteful extravaganza il
the prevailing methods of American
household life, but all of the present in
creased cost of living cannot Justly b'
/ laid to that account. \ part of it is tn,
) inevitable result of our present advanced
} civilization. The range of human want