St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-02-07
A Minneapolis Minister Comments Upon
Some Of the Evil Tendencies Of
Extravaganza.
Soms Anecdotes Taken From Life About
People Who starve to Keep Up
Appearances.
An Illustration OF How People Can
Live Within Their Means and
Command Respect.
The Contrast Between Fashionable
Society and That OF Culture and
Common Sense Living.


sort instead OF consisting. in the great ma
jority, OF instances of yapid platitudes about
spiritual life, the attendance at the churches
would be larger and the benefit to be de-
rived would be more obvious. There is one
Minneapolis preacher. II not more, who
permits his sense OF the ludicrous To assert
itself, and sometimes chooses to illustrate
his points by relating anecdotes that bring
into a strong light the senseless folly of
people who permit themselves to be fascin-
ated by the pomp and glitter of Vanity Fair
This minister Is Rev. John l.. Scudder of
the First Congregational church. whose
evident ambition TO do good. coupled with
his ability and personal qualities seems to
act as magnet in drawing about
him crowds OF eager listeners. In
his lecture OF recent Sunday
evening upon Living for Show. or the
Follies OF Extrayagance, Mr.. Scudder,
after citing Instances Of vulgar waste Of the
good things of life by the wealthy, took Oc-
easion 10 remark that quite as deplorable is
the folly OF those who are so enamSred Of
life OF display that they are either forced to
live beyond their income or to keep up the
appearance OF living on grander scale than
their means will warrant. Either OF their
modes OF life, that of extrayagance, which
l define as living beyond ones means. or
that Of pretenIion, which is nothing less
than financial hypocrisy, IS contemplate In
itself and most destructive of character
You can ind endless illustrations of this
from the top OF society 10 the very bottom.
Let me give you an example from a distance.
for upon this topic distance certainly lends
enchantment to the view. One of eur
American families was spending a few
months In the city OF Lisbon, and in the
course OF their SOjOurn became acquainted
with q Portuguese official whose pay was
small and who lived with his family in
hat. This man had q wife, sister and
several children 10 support but
was proud and pretentious, and
so was his wife, who usually
went about her house In old. sloyenly
clothes; but when she went out for prom
enade she had cunning way OF throwing
an elegant blue satin cloak trimmed with
ermine over her dirty calico dress and after
putting on snowy bonnet to match, would
walk forth, followed by several maids, who
were hired fer the occasion at SO much an
hour. Every day about dinner time the
table would be set i'm the parlsr with clean
damask cloth and napkins, silver forks aud
spoons, handsome wine glasses and goblets-
This stood for an hour or more, so that the
visitors might suppose that the family was
in the habit or dining IN elegant style. AS
a matter OF fact they never sat down to this
table. When the hour for visitation had
passed all these fine things were inme-
diately removed TO the closet, where they
remained until brought out again for the
next days exhibition The family, mark
you. always ate in the kitchen. where they
were very uncerimoniously sq1atted ON the
! floor around huge earthen pan containing
stew, from which each helped themselves
without even the f0rmality Of dishes.
80
This Is doubtless an extravagant case,
but can give you instances nearer home.
l know family in New York state who
belong, according to the phraseology of the
word, to the upper crust" and
move among the best. They live in
magnificent house, but it Is
heavily mortgaged, and il Is all they can do
to pay the interest. Every now and then,
beholding the depl0rable state of their
finances, they have spell of weeping and
wailing for fear they are going to the poor
house. Yet notice they dress luxuriously
and occasionally give fancy dinners, of
which even Delmonico might be proud. 1t
has become quite the fashion in New York
| city for heightened families TO hire expen-
siye wedding presents only for the evening
of the marriage. When the ceremonies are
over and the guests are gone these elaborate
presents are returned to the store, where
they are ready to go 10 another wedding or
| to be disposed of in bona tide sale. as the
case may be. Frequently a stylish lady
will call at jewelers. and order several
costly sets Of diamonds TO be sent to her
mansion that she may look them over at
her leisure with her husband, as she says,
she may wear the choicest among the lot to
some grand party and make all her lady
| friends believe that this Is only one set out
of a number i'm her possession. All, there
is a deal of hollowneSs in what is known as
high life. Much of it is mere masqueradlng.
and extends TO even the poorest classes in
/ society. know of a woman whose children
were starving, and when a benev-
olent lady gave her So she spent 81
for food but invested the other In silver
spangled belt. L knew another who was
frequently In want and received repeated
assistance from the church but could not
refrain from the pleasure of walking down
the street in a dress, the gorgeous train
swept the sidewalk by fully half yard.
-
My heart was once greatly touched by
little circumstance that happened In one of
who came from a distance were accustomed
to bring lunches which they generally ate
together, and over which they usually had
a merry time. Among those who remained
in the school house during the noon hour
was bright little girl. one of the best
scholars in the school, who never brought
any lunch but who cast many q wistful,
longing glance at her playmates as they sat
in the next room eating their sandwiches.
oranges and cakes. One day the teacher
noticed that this little girl. contrary 70 her
usual custom. brought her bundle also,
which the teacher supposed to be her lunch,
and observing that the little one did
not 20 out with her comparisons
but sat rather unsocially at her desk
as il preferring ~ eat alone,
walked towards her to advise her to go and
eat with her playmates. AS the teacher
was about to place her hand upon the bun
die the little girl suddenly burst into tears
and cried as If her heart would break.
''Oh. teacher" she sobDed, don't tell; its
nothing but blocks Of wood" The poor
child, you see. had no dinner to bring, but
she wished TO keep up appearances" SO as
not to seem unlike her schoolmates- 1t
was q bitter cup, indeed for this sensitive
little creature. She was obliged to drink
| IL, but she Is a BIT representative Of many
grown-up children whose ages range from
/ l6 to 60, who Ike her are trying TO appear
better of than they really are.
-
The only way to take comfort In life Is to
| look sQuaTely at our incomes and to deter
mine to live within our means and not pre-
tend to occupy a station which we cannot
sfford to maintain. How much suffering
this American people would escape If they
followed this salutary ruIe-f they cared