The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-07-12
THE RED RAG TO LABOR {.

gained IN enjoyment ul ANill' ll'N..
: The contrast which the French noble
brought about IN the iuttcr part NJ ih
eighteenth century between orulcn,
, and want had more 10 do with u
French revolution than any other on
factor in the working out Of that ca
tastrophe II was not so much hung,
and rags and Bqualor which turned th
common people into ravenlng wolves o.
I was the sight " pampered aristocrat
clad In bravery of silk and purple. pn
rading their yanlties OF wealth WI
the fated Queen OF France asked with
charming naivete why, n the people
could not get bread. they did not eat
cake she showed how little her bright
world rocked Of the dark world be-
yond IT, So the fine play went on.
Monsieur led Madame 20 the table
where the dalnties were spread on the
lawn. and as they ate and drank starry
ing men and women peered through the
palings: and when evening came the
gallants on horseback and the high
horn danes In their Sedan chairs, n
retinue brilliant with gems and hutter-
ing with laccs threaded the foul streets
of Paris. leaving the odor of patchouli
TO reconcile the ragged wayfarers to
their lot After me, the deluge' said
the King. and His Majesty was right
/ II came. The poor seized the firebrand
| and the pike and the rich and high
born exchanged the ostentation of
court progress for the sad procession
of the carts rumbling towards the gull
lotine.
Things are not go badly off in the
world today-far from it!-as they We're
/ a little more than a hundred years ago
| in France. There is a wider area OF
comfort and intelligence, better OPP
portunity in life, duller instinct of So
cial revolution. But after all human
nature is the same. Greed and envy
still sway the multitudes; ostentatious
wealth is stil an offence to those who
toll hard for little sustenance. What
reprisals It brings depend on tempera-
ment. on the defences of society, on tn"
spirit of the age and on the width OF
divergence in the social classes-but the
reprisals always come.
What old Californian does not recall
the Cotton letters in which that far
sighted man of affairs, the late G. +.
Huntington, rebuked, in scathing lam
guage. not always chaste, the building
of great houses on Mob Hill by the
Inouveau richie of the railroad and the
mines His pet antipathy was stan
| ford, whose palace, so Imperial ana
overlapping. looked down upon the
humber dwellings of the poor 1t was
not Stanford's fault nor Crocker's that
the mob which mounted the hill one
day from the sandots, hoarsely chal-
longing the milionaires, did not leave
that crested manor bare knoll covered
with ashes and broken stone. Had
times pinched n little harder; had Denis
Kearney not been venal, Tragedy
might have happened there which would
have appalled, the land
So far as Huntington was concerned
he always avoided display. His Mob
Hill house was the least pretentious
there; and he refused for years to live
in the New York palace which his wife,
in her efforts to enter society, insisted
on having built. The writer well re-
members getting an indignant letter
from the old magnate asking one san
Francisco paper to correct the state
ment of another, that he had bought
| s., 500 CARPET. II never paid more than
$3.50 for a carpet in my life" wrote the
man of multi millions. Far be 1t from
I him 10 rouse the sleeping devil in the
proletariat.
The latest bad effect from ostentation
In the matter of money is the strike cpl
demic on the Mainland, The strike In
the iron and steel industry came direct
" after the formation of the billion-dol-
lar trust and the appearance of Mr. Car
negle In the role of n Croesus able to
give vast iron-made fortunes away on
every hand without impairing his re-
serve or Gripping his prestige as
.I,s
Carnegie benefactions of the thirty
young millionaire partners Of the great
man and Of Skiho castle The atmos-
phere Of millions and multi-millions is
the only one through which the name
Of Carnegie can be deserted, The low
eqt estimate Of this one mans fortune
r,ndc in iron and steel is ten times
thar Of the late 4 n Stewards. All
This is very interesting to the curious
ruhlic: but to the s2-per-day laborer In
the iron mines, to the man sweating at
the furnace for Just enough to keep his
family alive and under roof. the
thought comes that there mas been
very unequal division Of the profits he
has helped to create. The philosophy
Is bad: the economic plea cannot hold
water: but the laborer believes that he
mas htp0 WFhnEtils I ne 'lINNN lll'''H7
sion ~ wealth which Carnegie has de-
lighted in has stirred the grimy toIler
10 revolt lie wants to ride, II not in
one OF those gIlded charlots NJ least IN
a modest cqulpaGe NJ his own. So the
strike comes on and whore II will end
no man can say. Fortunately the times
are good. what n there We're five mill
lions ~ idle men 10 rise and declare
that the day has come to abolish the
plutocrat7
That day may vet ho reached IN
America. and the noriug mngninconce
of the rich wiz he the means perhaps,
~ lmp1rlIng 20 the crisis "a more serious
hue than any this country has ever had
% see before, Patriots have much to
dread an another era M industrial doc
preston but unless thr vulgar ana
pr0dIF1l display and boast of millions
sUrrumhs to the rruwtH of prudence
and good taste who shah say thnt thr
r1rWaguoi6 may nut Not sound in tnr