Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-19
A MODERN VANITY FAIR.
The Absurd Extravaganza and Foolish
Display of New York.

Alfred Trumble in the Pittsburg Bulletin
The enormous growth OF luxury in New York
IN very recent years must. indeed strike every
observer who has travelled through the town
with his eyes open Extravaganza has become
popular gospel. We are long way behind
London yet. but London is the only city in the
world where spendthrift lavishness goes abroad
= splendidly lavish as il does with us. The in
lection here reaches all who have any money
to spend. The difference between the man of
millions and the man of thousands is only one
OF degree. The same instinct for the indul-
gence Of mania for spending money animates
and controls both. Frowsy women serve
beer in tenement-house groggeries, with
diamonds in their unwashed ears and on
their befouled fingers, Tenement rooms are
furnished on the installment plan with exhor-
bitantly costly limitations of the splenders of
Fifth avenue parlOrs and boudoirs The shop
girl, living as one OF half dozen in a bed
room In cheap boarding house, apes in her
everyday attire the splendOr OF Miss McFlimsev
who has new outfit for every week of the
year. The eounter-jumper has his clothes
made IN imitation Of those of the supporters of
the knickerbOcker club. Jones, on an income
OF $4,000 year. and with family houses
himself IN a 900 Hat. and Brown. who makes
$4,000 year, spends S2,500 for house-rent
and keeps a carriage and a retinue of servants
This does not mean that the mass of people
in New York are making more money than ever
but that they are spending more. Where they
once boarded they now waste. Where the
Browns and JOneses and Smiths were once con-
tent with a family-circle seat at the opera on
hOhday nights. and four visits TO the theater a
year, they now require orchestra chairs for
every novelty Where the Mrs. Browns and
Mrs JOneses and Mrs. RObinsOns were once sat-
lsned 70 make their own dresses, with a sewing
woman who went out by the day to do the
rough sewing. they now patroniZe modiste who
maAes-or, at any rate, Is supposed to make
annual visits to Paris, and processes to dress
her clients on models furnished by Worth and
Felix and Pingat. At the fashionable jewellers
they VIII tell you that their most profitable Gus
corners to-day are those who ten years ago did
OF venture even to look in at TIffany's window
there are diamond brokers in the very slurns
and makers of French boots and mill
tary in the districts blackened bv factory
smoke and grimed with the squalor of the
rOokeries OF the town. Only yesterday lounp-
ing among the mazes of the murky east side, /
found myself reading on the shadow of a iail
wall, the sign Of an English tailor and habit
maker" at whose door dirty children pelt each
other with dead cat, while there is no street
SO low or poor that il does not boast its Boot
maker from London" Even in the poorest
shopping streets the same condition of affairs
prevails. Iawdry limitations Of costly dresses
which are dear even at the prices asked for
theih' usurp the place OF durable and useful
fabrics. Pinchbeck jewelry, imitation pearls,
diamonds of glass. and silk umbrellas Of var
Wished cotton. invite the patronage of a crowd
that must shorten its allowance of bread TO in
dulge in these vulgar and worthless superfiui-
ties
The only difference between Broadway and
The Bowery, b etween 23d. 18th and Grand
streets, Is in the quality OF the goods they offer
Tor sale. While Cr9sus invests a fortune in
MeissonIers. Millets, and Daubignys at the
great picture sales, Clod wastes his hard-earned
cash on the frightful daubs sold by the mock
auction dealers. M8cenas fills his portfolio
with the rarities Of the printseller's shop while
ms bootblack adorns his walls with pirated
copies Of the masterpieces his betters buy al
more than their weight in gold. There was al
one time IN London a rage for living for APP
Pearanees, at no matter what ultimate cost
mat all the novelists and moraiists of the DAY
tatirzed In their keenest terms. The same
wee OF small vanity and false pride has found
It's root IN New York and put out its bait for all
take the hook as greedily as black bass will
snap tempting fy.