Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-08-09
ARIsTocRATs 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
at, say, country ball, but a trades
mans family-never. Now it 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 cab proprietor;
Lord Rayleigh'' is the inscription that
may oe read on the signboard of one or
two London diaries. The marquis of
Londonderry is prepared to deliver
coal by the ton. NO agentsr-such
are the final words of this nobleman's
advertisement, put in just as any trader
born and bred might put them in. This
decent from aristocratic seciusion 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 out of the mouths of
those who depend entirely upon bust
ness for their support
Far beneath these noble ranks can
be traced similar descent. Street
music, for instance, used to be dis
coursed by the utterly abject and
broken-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 sovereign a day per
man. Two hundred pounds a year in
an 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 trifle in public house
bars used to be and still is way OF
evading the law against begging. In
deed the custom of singing on the
| streets arose out of the same necessity
for those in want not to incriminate
themselves. Now you will be in the
saloon bar of a first rate refreshment
house. In comes a tOp-hatted, we'll
dressed man with bag. Some success
full stock broker, you think, if it be in
the city. You fancy you are the victim
| of a delusion. Here is this man. as
well dressed as your principal, holding
his open bag before you and asking you
to buy box of vestas! Well dressed
women are going about from public
house to public house pursuing similar
callings- They speak well, too, dc
these people, betraying a fair amount
of 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
instruments of their profession thu:
confiscated by an apparently superior
class. OF course, with such a down
ward trend the poor and needy arr
driven lower still, and this in a meas
ure is seen in the ever increasing char
liable institutions, relief agencies, soup
kitchens, and so forth, and the ever in
creasing strain on the resources of sucf
eSta blishments- - CaSsell's Saturday
/