The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-02-26

PCllOd OuC anu lWO CCllluIiGS UdCk, lOIllI-
ing fine object lesson which taught the
solid advance civilization has made,
marking the exquisite refinement in dress
between the present and the period of
tinsel and barbaric show of our ancestors.
1t demanded nothing less than stroke of
genius to bring out so completely the
march that civilization has made toward
the true in beauty and the pure in art.
Flowers, natural flowers and greens were
chosen to lend color and delicate ele-
gance to the scene, in place of gorgeous
tinsel and gliding. Nature is always true
and Mrs. Martin proved herself natures
true handmade.
And the company of guests which pro-
duced the living panorama, were the
cultured, the refined portion of the upper
ten. No snobbery, no stilted ahectation,
all moved with grace and ease, as they
passed, the nobility, the royalty, the best
the centuries behind us could produce
and whom history has preserved. They
showed the costumes, the decorations
and tinsel of past ages that royalty so de-
lighted in, as they moved through the
stately minuet and cotilion Of honor
There was no suspicion of immortality
about this ball Everything was pure
and ennobling, noble contrast to the
coarse, snowy displays that vulgar wealth
produces in class of New York society.
But what of the charge of criminal ex-
travagance that the not well-informed
bring against Mrs Martin in this season
of restitution among the masses? There
not feel the sums Of money spent in the
costumes, flowers, etc, necessary to pro-
duce the fairy scene. They purchased of
the things which art has designed and
busy hands have created, for the fingers
which put them together aud formed all
harmonious whole were gladdened by the
recompense for their toll 1t was merely
grouping i'll small space the best that
art could produce i'll place of their being
scattered through a wide world in other
forms.
The moral, the economic lesson which
Mrs. Bradley Martin taught the people
was best of all. She placed before them
a high ideal. She sat beauty, culture, art
and refinement OH high hill that all
might see and admire, strive to reach and
enjoy them. And the question comes
back to the masses, why and how can
few enter into these enjoyments and
not all? How has it happened that fab
ulous wealth has flowed into the purses of
this very small portion Of the people and
left millions i'll pinching want? Everv
cent of that wealth was created by labor
and yet the people who enjoyed it and
expended it so lavishly created none of it.
How came it to be in their hands in such
bountiful store? 1t came about by the
wrong doing of society, not by the recip-
tents of the wealth. 1t merely came TO
them through the machinery of our polit-
ical structure. Mrs. Bradley-Martin has
shown the people the enjoyment that is
within reach of all if they will so reorgan-
ize the social and political economy that
wealth will not involuntarily leave the
creator of it who labors with hand and
brain. Nothing would be taken from
those who have already accumulated
stores so bountiful that its very abundance
satiates the possessor, but it would cease
to flow in such boutiful streams from
industrial into idle hands,
The valuable wealth of the world is
consumed within the period of its crea-
ton. There is but comparatively small
quantity left over. So each year plovid-
ing for its needs would soon equalize the
bourties of nature and industry, were the
machinery of our civilization correctly
adjusted. The industrious needy would
steadily gain and those with a super
abundance would find the flow of the
golden stream gradually diminishing, till
the industry of their own hands would
begin to aid its supply.
Organized society is capable of produc-
ing twice as much of the good things of
this life as it now produces, and its needs
would crave and consume them all, if the
producer were not despoiled of his share
by our disjointed political economic sys-
tem 1t is now pitched on the policy To
him that hath shall be given and he shall
have more abundantly, and from him that
hath not shall be taken that which he
hath.
Mrs. Bradley-Martin's ball was great
teacher, grand object lesson if intelli-
gently studied, and she has earned the
thanks, not the envy, of an unjust and
uncharitable world.