Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-03-06
A $4,OOO,0OO,0OO BALL
IN A 100000 PALACE. WITH
100000 IN THE COLD.
Forty-Five Thousand Dollar Diamonds
Shine and GlIsten Around n $4,000
RaaldenCa.

MENUS Vanderbilts new residence was
opened at Newport with ball. The
palace cost $3,000,000 More than 200
choice guests gathered around the $780,
900 fountain by the grand stairway. 1t
is estimated that these 200 guests repre-
sented 100000, 900, and If that does
not entitle them to be termed the creme
of the creme simmed milk ought to be
good enough for most people,"
The Atlanta Constitution comment
ing on this says:
There is touch of i'll nature in
these comments. Ours is country for
all classes, the rich and the poor, all
colors and races. A billion dollar ball
is just as much in keeping with the
spirit of our institutions and the tone of
our society as any gathering would be.
1t is good thing for the people at large
that the rich are pleasure seekers, and
their extravaganza is in many ways a
blessing.
"The Vanderbilt ball turned an I'M
mense sum of money loose, and it di-
rectly and indirectly benefited thou
sands of tradesmen and toilers. Every
state in the union would be better off
If it had Vanderbilts building palaces
giving balls and scattering millions of
cash in every direction. This is the
way to look at it,"
The Richmond. Va, Star replies:
1--WE do not believe that billion dol
lar ball is in keeping with the spirit OF
our institutions. A billion dollar ball
represents thousands of homeless and
destitute people, made so by the rob-
berry of the owners of the billion dollars.
Their holdings are representative not
alone of wrecked homes, but OF crazed
minds, despoiled virtues, of prisons and
poorhouses, of thieves and felons. They
are representative Of hundreds who
were well-to-dO to-day and tomorrow
are homeless through the scheming and
rascality of those who watered and
manipulated the stocks of railroads and
mines and other properties, which were
turned over from the hands of the many
into those of few rascals who knew
IHe OulS anu Ills VI tHiCNoiy' an" oi'NiA
became the possessors of great proper
ties without the expenditure of any
money. No, the billion dollar ball is
not in keeping with the spirit of our
institutions unless cheating, stealing.
and lying are in keeping with the spiri.
of our institutions.
1--WE deny most emphatically that
every state in the union would be the
better off for having a few Vanderbilts,
For every Vanderbilt that every state
should have would have to count its
hundreds and thousands of idle and
homelesss and the few millions they
ned loose would not restore those
who have been robbed and ruined to
their own.
"Tramps and paupers were unknown
to this country until the millionaire
made his appearance. With the coming
of the millionaire has come the increase
of crime, of tramps, of paupers, of idle
ness and anarchy. For many years this
country moved steadily forward and
the people were prosperous in the larg-
est sense of prosperity without the
presence of a single man with mil
lion. With the coming of the million
aire have come all the ills that are
known to the body polite. AS the mil
lionaire increases his wealth the peo-
pie and the government have become
poorer, until today we are told that but |
for the generous action and liberality
Of few domestic and foreign million
aires our government would be without |
credit in foreign countries. When the
government kneels at the feet of the |
millionaire it is no wonder that one |
part of the people uncover their heads |
and shout their praises while another
and feebler part of the people are rid
den over and trampled underfoot."
There is another feature of this "spir-
it of our institutions About the same |
time that Christ was born, and lay |
sleeping in manger, the shepherds |
had a presentiment, and held a mass
meeting, and started out to find relief; |
and that made Herod so mad that he
killed all the boys under two years that
he could find. While this billion dollar
debauchery, one of the most profigate
carousals that this nation has ever
seen, unless it was congressional orgie
in a washington bazaar" or pres
idential Inauguration ball, 1,500 tramps
held a mass meeting in Kansas an
other proper presentation of the spirit
81 our institutions" 1t was very quiet
and orderly meeting, with no special
provision for the debauchery of women,
no parade of drunkenness; and the Ar
kansas river took the place of the $780,
900 fountain, the earth was the carpet
and Gods blue sky was the covering.
These were the representatives of the
producers (owners) of that three bill
lions upon which the thieves were riot
ing. And congress sits idly by, while
the nation is plundered, more openly
than when the British red coats
overland to burn down the
capitol at Washington.-Pue indie
pendent.
According to Mulhall there is just
II O4O in money and property for every