The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-05-17
THE WEST FROM AN EASTERN
POINT OF VIEW.

| A visitor at club in Chicago was
pointed out table at which usually
lunched hundred and fifty million dol
lars. This impressive statement was as
significant in its way as the list of men
in the days of Emerson, Agassiz and
Longfellow, who dined together as the
Saturday Club in Boston. We cannot,
however, generalize from this that the
only thing considered in the Northwest
is money, and that the only thing held
in esteem in Boston is intellect,
The chief concerns in the Northwest
are material, and the making of money
sometimes termed the development of
resources is of the first importance.
In Minneapolis aud St. Paul social po-
sition is more determined by money
than it is in most Eastern cities, and
this makes social life more democratic
so far as traditions and family are con-
cerned. | desire not to overstate this,
money is potent all over; but should
say that person not devoted to busi-
ness, or not succeeding in it, but inter-
ested rather in intellectual pursuits
study, research, art (nOt decorative),
education, and the like-would find less
sympathy there than in Eastern cities
of the same size, and less consideration,
Indeed, ! was told, more than once, that
the spirit of plutocracy is so strong in
these cities as to make very disagree
able atmosphere for people who value
the higher things in life more than
money and what money only will pro-
cure, and display which is always more
or less vulgar. But it is necessary to get
closer to the facts than this statement,
The materialistic spirit is very strong
in the West; of necessity it is, in the
struggle for existence and position go
ing on there, and in the unprecedented
opportunities for making fortunes. And
hence arises prevailing notion that
any education is of little value that does
not bear directly upon material success.
l should say that the professions, in
Guiding divinity and the work of the
scholar and the man of letters, do not
have the weight there that they do in
some other places, The professional
man, either in the college or the pulpit
is expected to look alive and keep up
with the procession, Tradition is weak;
it is no objection to thing that it is new,
and in the general strain sensations
are welcome. The general motto is,
"Be alive; be practical" D." Naturally,
bAoOi NChlIi lNNCllllO COlllC DJ utSllGS W
assert itself little in display, in osten-
tatiOus houses, luxurious living, dress,
jewelry, even to the frank delight in the
diamond shirt stud.
But we are writing of Americans and
the Americans are the quickest people
in the world to adapt themselves to new
situations. The Western people travel
much, at home and abroad, and they do
not require very long experience to
know what is in bad taste. They are as
quick as anybody believe they gave
us the phrase-to ''catch on to quiet
ness and a low tone, Indeed, | don't
know but they would boast that if it is
a question of subdued style they canbeat
the world. The revolution which has
gone all over the country since the Ex-
position of 1876 in house furnishing and
decoration is quite as apparent in the
West as in the East. The West has not
suffered more than the East from eccen-
triCities of architecture in the past twen-
ty years. Violations of good taste are
pretty well distributed, but of new
houses the proportion of handsome solid
good structures is as large in. the West
as in the East, and in the cities | think
the West has the advantage in variety,
1t must be frankly said that if the last
erner is surprised at the size, cost and
palatial character of many of their resi-
dences, he is not less surprised by the
refinement and good taste of their inter-
iors. There are cases where money is
too evident, where the splendor has been
| ordered, but there are plenty of other
cases where individual taste is apparent
and love of harmony and beauty. What
| am trying to say is that the East un-
dervalues the real refinement of living
going along with the admitted cost and
luxury in the West. The art of dining
is said to be test of civilization-on a
certain plane. Well, dining in good
houses u believe that is the phrase) is
much the same East and West as to ap-
pOintments, service, cuisine and talk,
with tritle more freedom and sense of
newness in the West. No doubt there
is difference in tone, appreciable but
not easy to define. 1t relates less to the
things than the way the things are con-
sidered. Where a family has had
things" for two or three generations
they are less an object than an unguard-
ed matter of course where things and a
manner of living are newly acquired,
they have more Importance in them
selves. An old community. if it is real
ly civilized Il mean state in which in
tellectual concerns are paramount, val
ues less and less, as an end, merely ma
terial refinement. The tendency all
over the United States is for wealth to
run in vulgarity.-[ Charles Dudley
Warner, in Harper's Magazine fol-
April.