The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-18
"lS LUXURY A SIM"
INTER ESTING DISCOURSE BY REV.
W. II. DICKERMAN.

Delivered Before the Congregation of
tho Church of the Observation-Disclosures
Luxury-The Former Pardonable Be-
cnuse Now-a-days One Must Have More
Than the Bare Necessities of Life.
AT the Church of the Messiah yester-
day morning the pastor, Rev. William
#. Dickerman, spoke on the subject, els
Luxury Sin?" He treated the subject
in an original manner and the discourse
proved very interesting. In part, he
spoke as follows:
To begin with what is luxury? One
would say, wanton waste, another sin
full extravaganza, another anything be-
You'd the necessities Of life. If the lat
ter is so then the poorest laboring man
is daily guilty Of living in luxury, But
is it SO? Condemn man to the barest
necessities of luxury and you remove
him but little from the life of the saw
age.
Luxury presents itself in different as
poets to nearly every one. 1t is judged
largely according to ones position in
life. To the man working for his regu-
lar salary, the wine and extravaganza
of the rich mans feast seems wanton
luxury. But it may not be half so ex-
travagant on the part of the rich man,
in proportion to his income and wealth
as the weekly spree of the other. Lux
ury is seemingly made up entirely of
superfluities Yet to the sensible mind
of to-day life is very barren without
these superfluites. AS one man has put
1t, Give me the luxures of life and I'll
willingly dispense with the necessities
Then again changes are being constant
~ brought about in the minds of people
as to what really are luxuries. Things
that were such in the days of our fore
fathers are certainly not classed as such
to-day. And the time is not far distant
when the bath tub, which the phian-
thfopc lady places in the tenement and
which the poor man uses to pack his
pork and potatoes in, will not be re-
garded by him as so much of a luxury
or superfluity, as you may put it, as it
is now He will come to regard it as a
necessity. en-
Under these circumstances it is really
very hard to appropriately define lux
ury. We are all aware that whatever
of the good things of life we may in
dulge ourselves in, in excess of our in
come, we are likely to regard as luxur-
les. The STRAIGHTFORWARD corsets and
high French heels affected by the work.
ing girl in imitation of the fine lady are
certainly culpable luxuries. Yet on the
other hand, luxury has definite rela-
ton to ones comfort and usefulness,
and whatever equips us for better ser
vice to ourselves and humanity should
be well thought of no matter how great
the cost.
Right here then we have presented
before us one of the great social prob
lens of the age. In considering it we
have presented before us a narrowing
picture Of the extremes of life. What
is the Justification of the terrible in /
equality. Would the effect be better if 7
the rich man should discourage the use
of luxuries and turn the great amount
of labor involved in their manufacture (
into the greater manufacture of the ne I
cessities Of life? Or does this very lux
urious living of the rich man give labor I
to the poor man which he would not /,
otherwise obtain? 1t is a question that
is agitating reformers and sympathetic
friends the world over.
The speaker here gave it as his view
that no matter the questions involved
some luxuries were necessities He con-
demned the practice of the poor in |
spending their savings for luxuries for
themselves and their homes in the de-
sire to emulate the rich, thereby caus- |
ing themselves great suffering later on, |
but he admitted that to live in any de- |
gree of comfort nowadays one must
have more than the bare necessities of
life fIe thereby drew distinction be-
tween luxury and great luxury, and
showed the former to be pardonable in
view Of the change in the times.