Smyrna times., 1890-04-30
Extravaganza.

A writer in the New York Sun has
expressed the opinion that the real
cause of certain failures recently an
nounced in New York Was exIrava-
gance. Thousands of men more or
less prominent in mercantile pursuits
annually expend very much more than
IS CONSTANT with prudence, simply to
be fashionable to keep up appearances.
to equal If not surpass their neighbors
in display. They indulge in luxuries
which they really do not care for, sim
ply because their neighbors or certain
leaders of society indulge in them.
Ihey are not content with a plain car
rlge and unOrnamental harness. but
must have a resplendent brougham
and flashing silver-mOunted harness. n
$4,000 team of high stepping horses.
and two gorgeous flunkeys on the box.
In order to secure and retain social
prominence they must provide costly
entertainments, one or two balls dur
ing the season, frequent dinners with
their uperabundance of indigestible
edibles, theatre parties, with the
howers, Omnibusses and midnight SUD-
pers. Then, the hard working man of
business must pay the enormous bills
OF mllllners, dress makers. shoe-mak-
ers, and what not, which his wife and
daughters run up. Is it strange that
many spend every cent of their income
and some exceed it.
And what is the object OF such ex.
travagance To be in the swim. as
the saying is, to keep on the crest Of
social life. to be talked about, and ad-
mltted in the drawing rooms of "socie-
ty people"
Is it strange that business reverses
come? What sympathy can a sensible
man have for these shallow, character
less, commonplace creatures who so
pltifully yearn for the poor. miserable
satisfaction of being socially promin-
ent Think of the energies that are
mlsspent, and lives that are wasted.
the false, the pitable devises that are
resorted to in order to gain and keep
social distinction Think OF the temp
tations to get money dishonesty that
must assall the man whose family is
intensely eager to attain the coveted
position of society That cannot be
won without money, except in very
few cases. An abundance of wealth
will at length secure admission to the
inner circle of high society. Hence
this intense anxiety to get rich.
What must be the intellectual def
clencies, the spiritual destitution, of
those whose highest ambition is to as
cend to the topmost heights of social
eminence Are they not sad and pitt
able objects What poor shams and
slmulachre many of them are What
poor shadows and echoes Always
striving to be and do like others, they
would suffer chagrin beyond measure
If their clothes were Questionable
They could not be persuaded to live in
an questionable part of the city They
prefer to pay an extOrtionate rental
for small house in fashionable dis
trIct rather than live in a large and
commOdious mansion in an unfashion-
able street. at low rental. How
much more satisfactory, how much
more noble and beautiful could life be
to such people, if they could only con-
duct themselves like reasonable beings
instead of reducing themselves to
nonentities What frightful iusinceri-
ties and mendacities they must be
guilty of; what stiflings of conscien-
ces, what base cOnfoTmities
Is there anything solid and substan-
tial, anything permanently and essen
TALLY valuable, in this struggle for So
cial eminence, and the final attainment
of it ? Is a man or woman intrinsically
any better for this experience? Heaven
help those who think they are