The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-05-01

nucn about inc mater uIS Sel! pei
sonally, but, from what | hear and
read, the style Of living which pre-
vails in this city is perilous in the eX-
treme to business solvency, and 1t re-
suits mainly from the efforts of women
to surpass, or, at least, to equal one
another in luxury and display. Lux
ury, as I said few weeks ago, speak
in" of the New Years ball. is potent
force in developing wealth, but, like all
forces, it muct be controlled or it Will
do mischief. Because Mrs. AstOr has
splendid diamonds, Mrs. Vanderbilt a
magnificent house, and Mrs. Whitney
4 beautiful ballroom, or because some
dozen or more other women in society
are able, like them, to indulge III fine
houses and dresses. wear brilliant Jew
els, and give sumptuous entertainments,
it bv no means follows that all their
less fortunate acquaintance need strive
to do the same They do not, indeed,
strive to DO exactly the same,
but they endeavor to come as
near to it as they possibly can, and,
like the coachman who tried to see
how near he could drive to the edge OF
the precipice, q very slight error IN cal
culation tips them over. Not every
woman undertakes TO wear as many
diamonds as Mrs. Astor or Mrs. Brad
ley Martin, nor to live in as fine houses
as the Eanderbilts and the Whitneys,
nor to dress as richly and to give as
sumptuous entertainments as these
milllonaires, but she must have some
diamonds, some Paris dresses, and give
some handsome dinners and dances.
All this her husband must earn the
money to pay for, and while he may
do it in a few years, he cannot do 1t III
all, and then arises the trouble which
Mr.. Micawber so graphically depicts,
and which ends in the bankruptcies, if
not worse, which happen so frequent
". \ friend of mine, now dead, used
to manage things better. I remember
we'll how, when he had good income,
he would set up his carriage, take
house at Newport, and entertain right
royalty. When a bad year came the
carriage and horses were sold, the
house at Newport was given up, and
the entertainments ceased. He made
no secret of the reason, and whatever
else may be thought of his system.
there was no impugning his honesty. If
every one in his position only had
the moral courage that he had, it would
be better both for himself and for his
creditors.
As | read over what l have above
written it occurs to me that l have
either read or heard something like 1t
| somewhere before, and I fear that
| many of my readers may have done
| the same. No matter, it is none the
less true, and none the less useful, and
I stand by every word of it. As Her.
bert Spencer has ably demonstrated,
the progress of all development is from
a state of less compleXity to one Of
greater complexity, and the law applies
to society as to everything else. At
present, there is too much uniformity
in peoples manners and habits, and
too little individuality. AS time rolls
on and.we learn wisdom by experience,
hope to see the prevalent universal
striving Of every body to do exactly like
everybody else replaced by a Drawer
effort to do the thing that each one
can do best and the rivalry leading to
living beyond ones means supplaEted
by rivalry leading to doing the ut
most possible within ones means.