Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-30

u.
Msny men would not die at all if they
had to wait until they could afford it.
Wrong fashion is productive Of a most
ruinous strife. The expenditure OF many
households Is adjusted by Whist their
neighbors have, not by what they them
selves can afford to have; and the crest
anxiety is as to who shall hSve the finest
house and the most costly equipage. The
weapons used in the warfare of socisl
life are not MIME rifles and Dahlgren
guns, and Hotchkiss shells, but chairs,
aud mirrors, and vases, and Gobelins and
Administers. Many household establish
ments are like racing steamboats, pro-
PEELED st the utmost strain and risk, and
Just coming to terrific explosion, "Who
cares" say they, 'tif We only come out
aheso?n
There is no one cause to-day of more
financial embarrassment and of more dis
honesties than this determination at all
hazards to live as well as or better than
other people. There are persons who
will
RISK THEIR ETERNITY
upon one pier mirror, or who will dash
out the splendors Of heaven to get another
triuket.
"My house Is too small" "But," says
some one, "you cannot pay for q larger"
"Never mind that, my friends have bet
ter residence and so will l." ga dress
of that style and material must have,
cannot afford it by great deal; but who
cares for that? My neighoor had one
from that pattern, and must have one. :"
There are scores of men in the dungeons
~ bn fiap Jbn rio G,c
ness--eVerythipg, in the effort to SHINE like
others. Though the heavens fall they
must be Sin the fashion"
The most famous frauds OF the day
have resulted from this feeling. 1t
keeps hundreds Of men struggling for
their commercial existence. The trouble
is that some are caught and incarcerated
if their larceny be small. II it be great
they > escape and build their castle on
the Rhine. Men get into jail rot because
they steal, but because they did not steal
enough.
Again: Wrong fashion makes people
unnatural and untrue. 1t is factory
from which come forth more hollow pre-
lenses and unmeaning batteries and
hypocrisies than the Lowell mills ever
turned out shawls and garments. Fash
ion is the greatest of all liars. 1t has
made society insincere. You know not
what to believe. When people ask you
to come, you do not know whether or
not they want you to come. When they
send their regards you do not know
whether it is an expression OF their heart,
or an external ciVility.. We have learned
to take almost
EVERYTHING AT DISCOUNT
Word is sent "not at home" when they
are only too lazy too dress themselves.
They say: "The furnace has just gone
out" when in truth they have had no fire
in it all winter. They apologize for the
unusual barrennessEof their table, when
they have never lived any better. They
decry their most luxurious entertainment
TO win 6 shower of approval. They
apologize for their appearance, as though
it were unusual, when always st home
they look just so. They wouldsmake you
believe that some nice sketch on the wa
was the work of a msster-painter. sit
was an heirloom and once hung on the
walls of castle; and a duke gave it to
their grandfather" People VINO will not
lie about anything else will lie about
picture. On small income W.
must make the world believe that
we are affiuent, and our life becomes g
cheat, q counterfeit and q sham. Few
people are really natural and unaffected.
When l say this do not mean to slur
cultured manners. 1t is right that we
should have more admiration for the
sculptured marble than for the unhewn
block of the quarry. From many circles
in life fashion has driven out vivacity
and enthusiasm. A frozen dignity instead
floats about the room and iceberg grinds
against iceberg. You must not laugh
outright; it is vulgar. You must smile.
You must not dash rapidly across the
room, you must glide. There is round
of bows, and grins, and batteries, and
obs and abs, and simperings, and Mandy
pambyism-a world of which is not worth
one good, round, honest peal Of laughter.
From such hollow round the tortured
guest -etires at the close of the evening
and assures his host that he has enjoyed
himself. Thus social life has been con-
torted and deformed, until, in some
mountain cabin, where rustics gather to
the quilting or the apple. pairing, there
in more good cheer than in all the fres-
coed icehouses of the metropolis. We
want in all the higher circles OF society
more warmth OF heart and naturalness Of
behavior, and not
so MANY REFRIGBRAToRs.
Again: Wrong fashion is ncompa tible
with happiness. Those who depend for
their comfort upon the admiration of 9th.
ers are subject to frequent dissppoint-
ment. Somebody will criticise their sp-
pearance, or surpass them in brillianCY,
or will receive more attention. Oh, the
jealousy, and detraction, and heart burn
ings of those who move in this bewildere
maze. Poor butterflies! Bright wings
60 not always bring happiness.
"She that liVeth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth." The
revelations OF high life that come to the
challenge and the fight 1:e only the occa-
slonsl groupings out Of disquietudes that
are, underneath, like the stars OF heaven
for multitude but like the demons of tie
pit for hate The misery that will to-
night in the cellar cuddle up in the straw
is not so utter as the princely disquletude
which stalks through splendid drawing
rooms brooding over the Sights and Of
fences of luxurious life. The bitterness
of life seems not so uniting when drunk
out of pewter mug as when it pours
from the chased lips OF golden chalice.
In the sharp crack Of the voluptuary'e
pistol, putting sn end to his earthly mis-
cry, 1 hear the confirmation that in a