The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1894-08-11
IN TRADE.

From Esthetic SeclusIon Into the Arena
of Commercial Conflict
Not so very long ago the line between
the aristocracy and other classes of the
community was very decidedly drawn
at trade. A poor family might lay
claims to gentility, and one or more OF
Its members might now and then figure
1t, say, a country ball, but a trades
mans family-never. Now 1t is other
wise, the aristocracy themselves having
stepped over the dividing line. Lord
Shrewsbury and Talbot, for instance,
who takes precedence of all other Earls,
unblushingly became a cab proprietor;
Lord Rayleigh" is the inscription that
nay oe read on the signboard of one or
two London diaries. The marquis of
Londonderry is prepared to deliver
coal by the ton. mo agents"-such
are the final words of this nobleman's
advertisement, put in just rs any trader
born and bred might put them in. This
decent from aristocratic seclusion into
the arena of commercial conflict is not
confined to the male portion of our
nobility. Titled ladies under disguised
names carry on millinery establish
ments and run cafes. Their dainty
fingers. too, are not above manipulate
ing flowers for profit. So generally,
indeed, has the sacred thirst for gold
Infected the upper ten. that whereas
they were wont to be accused of living
in idleness. they are now accused of
taking the bread ont of the mouths Of
hose who depend entirely upon bust
less for their support.
Far beneath these noble ranks can
De traced a similar descent. Street
music. for instance. used to be dis
,oursed by the utterly abject and
oroken-dOwn: now men and women,
warmly clad and well fed, go about
with organs. Troupes of men sing,
rattle the bones. and do a breakdown
In the public thoroughfares to the
tune of not less than the
better part of a sovereign a day per
man. Two hundred pounds a year in
assured situation was the salary
that one young man threw up last sum
mer to join a niger troupe at the sea-
side. and he doesn't regret it. At the
end of the season he had more money
than he ever had before and during the
season he ate better dinners and drank
better wines than he had ever eaten or
drank before. Hawking matches. or
laces. or any other trife in public house
bars used to be and still is a way of
svading the law against begging. In
Heed the custom of singing OF the
streets arose out of the same necessity
for those in want not to incriminate
Now you will be in the
saloon bar of a first rate Tcfreshment
In comes a top-hatted. we'll
dressed man with a bag. Some success-
tul stock broker. you think. if it be in
The city. You fancy you are the victim
If a delusion. Here is this man. as
we'll dressed as your principal, holding
lis open bag before you and asking you
% buy a box of vestas. Well dressed
vomen are going about from public
house to public house pursuing similar
,allings. They speak well. too, do
!hese people. betraying a fair amount
IF education. If tradesmen have any
grounds for complaining of the aristoc-
racy trenching On their territory surely
the poor and needy have grounds of
similarly complaining of having the
OF their profession thus
.onfiscated by an apparently superior
class. OF course. with such a down
ward trend the poor and needy are
lower still, and this in a meas
ure is see in the ever increasing char
institutions, relief agencies, soup
kitchens, and SO forth, and the eve IN
creasing strain on the of such
Establishments. - Cassell's Saturday