The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-03-17
b MIN Gus SIGNS
cA1ldren starvc WHINE Doxs Are Fed on
Game rio ana CLlnken.

CAlldren starvs winnie Doxs Arc Fed On
Came rio ana Cxlcken.
When the Roman civilization was
ssickening unto death, one Of the signs
Of decay and dissolution was the
wicked and we'll nigh insane extrava-
gance and wastefnlness OF the rich.
AT their feasts and banquets ingen-
uity was exhausted il the effort to
devise means for ostentatiously parad-
ing their wealth. Dishes Of niphtin-
gales brains and tongues are among
the extravagances of which historians
tell When out Of the rottenness Of
the wealthy ruling classes the seeds
Of the French revolution were ripen-
ing. the most notable sign of the
times was similar Ostentatious:
prodigality. The nobility and the
wealthy classes seemed to delight in
insulting the poor. and tantalizing
them with q display Of the wealth
OF which they had legally, however
unjustly and immorally, possessed
themselves. This insane ,craving
for display was not the disease, but q
symptom Of the disease Of which
the Roman civilization died and of
which the French one was only par
tally cured by the blood-letting of the
revolution. The disease was the I'M
just concentration of the wealth
which the many had created in the
hands of the idle few. The same
disease is preying upon our nine
teenth-century civilization, its causes
are the same as those which induced
the malady which destroyed the old
civilizations, and its symptoms are
the same. Hereais one Of them:
Mrs. Eugene Clarke gave a dog party on
Tuesday, at her residence in New York, in
honor Of the birthday OF her dog. and twenty
CANNES that attended were treated to q repast
OF sliced chicken. game pie and ice cream.
While within sound of their .yelping
hundreds of children.are suffering the
pangs of unsatisfed hunger. Mrs.
Clark's cur and the scurs of twenty
other benefciaries of the iniquitous
system which is responsible for those
children's misery gorge on dainty
viands. If Mrs. Clarke is. as good as
the best of her class. to her care for her
dog is possibly added anxiety for the
souls of foreign heather, and her
purse might be induced to open for
subscription to a charity ball, or per-
haps for donation to some we'll ad-
vertised charity scheme. But Mrs.
Clarke is not worse than many
others, says the journal of the
Knights Of Labor. and her freak of
ostentatlous parading of wealth diff
fers not in degree but only in kind
from the freaks in which others in
dulge. We are apt, especially about
the fourth OF, July, ito tell ourselves
of our good fortune in being rid of
a hereditary aristocracy. The tell
ing of it seems tosharmOnize with the
popping of loyal fire-crackers and the
whiz Of patriotic rockets. But did
we ever indulge in the luxury of
sober thought, it might occur to
as to question whether a parvenu
plutocracy be not an even more in
tolerable burden, and |: more dis
graceful one, to these who patiently
bear itP In the meantime the ques-
ton which the American people must
answer is whether they will allow
the system to continue which is con-
centrating wealth at rate of which
old Rome never dreamed, which is
breeding the MISUNDERSTANDING
disease of which parvenues and their
dog parties are one Of the symptoms?
With Whitney reaching out even
beyond the boundaries of his own
country to grasp the coal fields, with
railway and telegraph kings fasten-
ing their tentacles upon every nook
and corner of the land, with des-
perate attempt being made to de-
monetize silver SO that the power of
the money kings to plumber may be
made more absolute, they are the
blindest of the blind who cannot see
that the disease. here has reached
stage even more acute than it had
reached in Rome when that civiliza-
tion fell.