The evening times., 1899-02-14
Sinful Luxury.

The sin of luxury which is 'endangering
the future of the Republic. They see
grave menace in the fact that the Ameri-
can workingman does not live as Simply as
his fathers did, and that things which our
ancestors regarded as luXuries we consider
absolute necessaries. And it has been de-
clared that these things are signs OF de-
cav. and portend fall like that of the Ro-
man Empire.
This sort of argument is not very new
1t has been used by every generation since
man stopped living in trees and learned TO
talk. For all that we know, our arboreal
ancestors may have expressed it by signs.
There was a time when glass windows, and
pictures, and books. and soap were lux
uries beyond the means OF any but the
rich. In course OF time these things be
came more abundant, till now nobody eX-
cept, perhaps. an agent of the Associated
Charities. would consider them incompati-
BILE with poverty. Potatoes were once
luxury, and so was wheaton bread. There
was a time when a silk gown was beyond
the reach of any but well-to-do woman,
and now silk is almost as cheap as cotton.
Once the poor man could not afford to
learn to read: now he cannot afford TO b.
illiterate. The progress which brings COM
fort beauty. and pleasure, into the lives of
the poor is not dangerous. This fountry
will never go to wreck because its working
people are TOO comfortable and pro porous
The kind of luxury which is mischievous
is of another sort. Ii is mainly TO be
found among the thoughtless rich When
roses costing 81 apiece are used to carpet
a floor, the perpetrator of this decoration
resembles the Roman epicure, serving a
dish of humming birds tongues to his
guests. The moral and esthetic level of
such people is that of the saloonkeeper
who foored his place of business with sil
yer dollars set close together in bed of
cement, just to show that he had dollars
TO tread under foot. The advantage is, if
anything on the side of the saloonkeeper,
{ since his floor was at any rate permanent,
while the wholesale waste of rosebuds
served but the purpose of an hour. When
a person throws away money-money for
which somebody's brain and blood and life
have been spent-merely to crafty an in
ordinate desire to be thought rich, that
person is a barbarian. He encourages like
/ wastefulness in others
! 1t may be argued that this expenditure
helps the workingman by giving him
/ employment" and this, in some cases, is
/ true. But absolute waste wanton destruc-
tion of the products of mans labor, does
more harm than good. Suppose rich
man were 10 build a magnificent house,
employing hundreds of persons in its con-
struction, and, after giving one ball in it,
should set it on fire and burn ii to the
ground. 1t might be said that he had done
good with his money in giving employment
to the builders, and that the more houses
he built and burned the better it would
be for them. Suppose he waste in this
way, during his lifetime, half a million
! dollars. He has paid that out in wage.
and in the cost of the materials DESTROYED
/ His children have nothing TO show for it.
He has during his life set a fashion which
leads all his imitators to burn their houses
after giving one entertainment. Some of
them ruin themselves in trying to keep up
with the demands of the fashion All OF
these are taken out of the ranks of en-
ployers into the working class. The rich
whose fortunes have been large enough to
stand the drain find themselves in the next
generation with less money to spend in
giving employment TO the poor. The
country is enriched by no beautiful build
! ings, by no great libraries, by no collec-
! tions of paintings, by nothing except what
has been gathered during a few prosperous
years by people who are too poor to follow
the fashion and burn their houses. The
! benefit was not permanent, but temporary
and illusiye, and attended with so many
mischievous consequences that its good
effect was nullifed.
! OF course this is an extreme Illustration
! Such fashion as the destruction of ones
house for the sake OF show is never likely
! TO become popular. But there are hun
dreds of ways In which money can be spent
which are of no more use to the spendel
| or to the public than if 1t were put il
! the fire. That sort of luxury is the sinful
kind When money is spent in such a way
/ that a beautiful thing of permanent value
! is created or an industry is established
WHICH gives employment at 1alr wages to
new class Of workingmen, thus relieving
the pressure of great masses of unskillet
labor in the market. then it is spent tC
good purpose. The man who makes two
blades OF grass grow where one grew be.
fore is benefactor. The man who wan.
tonly destroys one blade of grass is not
Manufacturing Good Temper.
Most of us have wished at one time o,