The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-12-22
Lady Brooko,s $4,000 Fur Wrap.

abroad, have been raising SoAielhihS u
. a howl over the discovery that the
Countess of Warwick, better known to
fame as the Prince of Wales Lady
Brooke, is the possessor of a wrap OF
sable fur valued at $4,000. The discovery
was made through the theft of the wrap
by an agricultural laborer with a wlfe
and six children whom we are told
more or less m~ythieally-he was strugg-
ling to support on 81 a week. The thing
that seems to offend the radical soul
is the contrast. They cannot see why
Lady Brooke should have an 5000
wrap while some people have only 81 a
week, and they seem to regard the facts
as demonstrating the heartlessness as
well as the general inutility of the
wealthy class.
On every economic principle, this is
unjust as well as absurd. To single out
any group or class of persons for con-
domination on account of the inequalities
of the world is sufficiently preposterous.
To chose an individual scapegoat is
mere midsummer madness. In fact it
is ridiculous TO find fault with the world
for being what it is or with mankind for
being what it is. Human nature and
the laws of society are such that if the
Almighty should readjust the goods and
s7I- af tto u-OrII ao a hociG of ahSOt1Ifa
equality today, the people would be once
again divided up into rich and poor by
tomorrow night and the poor would out
number the rich by fifty to one. Indeed,
under no other conditions save those OF
inequality and f%luctuation could my
thing like happiness be possible to men.
But to return to Lady Brooke, it does
rot appear to have oceurred>to her critics
that in buying an $4,000 wrap, so far
from absorbing in her own person the
maintenance of many hundred persons
for 4 week. she was really, distributing
that much money, maintaining just the
nrmber of people that $1,000 will provide
for; in short, she was doing the best she
could to provide employment, relieve.
distress and put money in circulation.
No rational man would have had her
give the money in charity. This is the
most deadly wrong that can be done
the poor. In the extreme cases of youth,
age, sickness. or other disability, the
community must interfere to relieve suf-
fering and distress. But it is a social
crime to give aims in any shape to the
able-bodied who are capable of earning
if they get the chance.
BIT, you may say. why spend the
money on a mere gew-gaw? When a
SO wrap would keep her just as warm.
why put all this wealth into a single
piece of vanity? Well, in the first place,
it is obvious that if Lady Brooke spent
her money on h scale. it would be
impossible for her ever to put even a
fraction of it in circulation. She could
not wear. still less wear out all the gar
laiChto III AlCI4CS "Odid OhS Z Apply
ing the same principle to her other needs
her home. her furniture. her food and
drink, it is plain that if she spent money
on a basis OF bare necessity, she could
only dissipate a few hundreds of dollars
in the year instead of tens of thousands,
as she presumably does in the gratiica-
ton of luxurious instincts. Thus, she
would be compelled either to hoard her
income or to just give it away, and of
these alternatives it is hard to say which
is the more utterly vicious.
Furthermore, if the entire wealthy
class adopted the same plan of just buy
ing what moderate comfort demands, of
fair average quality at fair average
prices, at least half of all the working
class would at once be thrown into idle
ness and starvation, nor is it obvious how
the world could be readjusted so as to
provide work and s~ustenance for them.
But, admit this difficulty could be
overcome, the loss to the world in the
abolition of $4,000 wraps and the like
would be beyond all calculation in
money. The loss to the working class
would consist in the abolition of all
higher ideals in their handierafts. The
construction of an 5000 wrap of sable
may be as much of an artistic incentive
to a furrier of great skill as the build
ing of a wifi vessel to a Herreshof
or the indicting of Locksley Hall to Ten
nyson. That wrap has caused hunters
to track the forests of Siberia; it has
set ships sailing upon the seas; it has
aided in the building up of miles OF
railroad, and in the end it has given an
ideal to some mastery craftsman, ano
has helped to elevate the standard OF
all workmanship in fur. The hundred
dollar suit of clothes for the Fifth ave
nue. exquisite is the real reason why the
$40 suit sold at the Boston or Bernstein's
is well cut. Take away the glass Of
fashion and the mould of form. ant
John Average will soon be going about
the streets in gunnybags.
But. besides, Lady Brooke's $1,000 wraI
remains a thing of beauty and one atom
in the mosaic Of many rich and innpos