The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-02
TO WHAT WILL 1T COME?
A QUESTION SUGGESTED BY OUR
GROWING PROSPERITY.
MiIIionaires Cannot Spend More Than
They Are Now Doing-Even Lux
ury Has Limit.

"Old New Yorker" in New York Sun.
1t is evident that we have entered upon
a period in which fortunes are TO be erected
and extended on a scale OF magnifcence
never before attained in this country nor
even paralleled anywhere else in the world
in modern times. In succession to the mil
lionaire the Millionaire is now to be ushered
in as a parsonage in our society. The So
ciaI functions which dazzled our mag
nations in other days have been made TO
seem poor and petty by the side of the
grandeur of appointment and entertainment
which has now succeeded them. Feminine
toilets which then were our admiration as
costly and tasteful are made cheap and
tawdry beside the ball costumes Of this
time Fare which was regarded as lux
urious then would be looked as only
frugal now, remember when the daugh-
ter Of a well-known family of New York
received 500, 900 as her dot the whole OF the
fashion of the town was stirred by the
report of such magnificence. And well II
might be, for then fortune of that amount
was accounted large.
Now / am not complaining Of the present
accumulation Of wealth and the growth Of
the grandeur of the society of this time. for
1 do not forget that meantime the whole
standard of material comfort in New York
has gone up correspondingly. Conveniences
denied to the rich fifty and sixty years ago
are now enjoyed by the poor. Articles then
accounted luxuries for the fortunate only
have become commonplace necessaries for
all who live in decency now. From a high
death rate then sanitary regulation has
made New York remarkable among the
Of he foy haa f1l-
ness. Tenement houses then were wretched
habitations In the old days when st.
Marks place and Second avenue were seats
Of contemporary wealth and when even
about Tompkins Square were residences
relatively stately, there was put up in
Eleventh street to the east of Second ave-
nue. a row of tenement houses, mere bar
racks, in which were crowded families Of
the poor without even the decencieS now
enforced by law on landlords, and the filth
and almost savage life of those people,
their Drunkenness, their ear-piercing fam
lily brawlS-husbands beating wives
daily eXercise-drove from the neighbor-
hood the very respectable deniZenS of Tenth
street among whom my boyhood was spent.
All that has changed. The tenement house
now, under the cOmpulsion of drastic law.
is palace comparatively, and markets and
groceries in the districts occupied more
particularly by the tenement population
bear witness to the great improvement in
the quality and variety of their food which
has taken place since two generations ago.
CHANGE OF FASHION.
When wealth and fashion moved to Fifth
avenue and Murray Hill a generation ago
the houses built there for their accommoda-
ton were deemed imposing residences
brownstone, high-stoop and cast-iron
fenced structures, block after block OF
them, of monotonous builders architecture,
that the 'plutocrat' of those days could
not distinguish his house from its neigh
bors by any outward distinction apparent
to a less cultivated eye. You would go to a
dozen parties" in a winter and in the
household appointments amid which they
were held there was almost absolute same
reSS. y hail. a long ''parlor," succeed or
frescoed ceiling of the barroom type of a
few years ago, and tasteless furniture-they
were exactly alike; and in all its incidents
and accessories one party was simply a
repetition of the other. the supper the
the parlOr the same. In those simple days,
too, the costumes of the women may have
seen repeated service with alterations made
by the industrious women dressmakers.
Creations in the way of gowns had not
yet come in.
How humble and modest in its require
ments fashion was then, and how unculti-
waited was it's taste compared with the
present, is made to appear very strikingly
now when residences which then were rela-
lively palatial are torn down as crude and
unsightly structures utterly untitled in size
and arrangements for the luxurious and ex-
acting society OF tQeSe Gays. In the first
place, they are without accommodation for
the service now deemed essential When
| they were built, two, three or four women
servants sufficed for the richest Men SerV-
ants, unless a man of all work who at
tended TO the furnace and what not, were
almost unknown. Now papers advertising
situations wanted contain columns of
the advertisements of buffers, coachmen,
men cooks and Wallets. The time was when
/ could count, almost on my fingers, the
private carriages in town; now | cannot
70 eli
| through an endless procession of stately
! private equipages. Eight, ten, even twenty
servants have become usual appendage OF
wealth l went the other day to buy a
| refrigerator and being in doubt as to the
| size | wanted, the proprietor of the shop,
| himself q man of substance, said, "Of
| and therefore you need" such "A size Being
/ q humble person who has not advanced
with the times, and having no such estab-
| lishment, L was f1attered with the opulent
| distinction he discovered in my appearance.
| But 1 bought a smaller refrigerator, after
| all.
LIMIT OF WEALTH AND LUXURY.
! I write this as an introduction to the
! question. What is to be the consequence of
all this progress in grandeur and when will
the limit be reached? Private fortunes are
becoming so magnificent that there is
nothing material obtainable which they
cannot buy without indulging in extrava-
gance relatively to their proportions. One
! great man of wealth is reputed to have had
an income of s4S,OOOOOO last year. On its
mere income he can maintain a state as
/ great as that of king or emperor, though
/ such display does not seem to be in ac-
| cordance with his taste. Relatively to their
| incomes our very rich men of this time are
| spending less than did the rich men of the
/ older day. Their household expenditures are
not a circumstance for them to consider, so
| Insignificant is the amount compared
fN,.,sv.
not as extravagant as is the workman who
! buys a glass of beer out of his wages. In
/ all New York there is not now q family
/ which spends a great sum proportionately
! to the great incomes frequent in the
J town Only when they come to die do we
| find out how vast is the wealth possessed
| by people of whom we never heard; but
| can remember when every very rich man of
| the town. as we estimated wealth then, was
| as well known as Trinity steeple. Sons of
such men, still among my friends. are living
/ IN comparatively humble circumstances on
/ the outskirts of fashionable districts, yet
after all, they are maintaining a higher
1 standard of expenditure than did their
! fathers the foremost examples of the
! former prosperity. They are surrounded
/ with more taste and luxury more substan-
! tial comfort; but relatively to the wealth OF
| these days they are poor and their state is
| modest in the extreme. Almost everybody
/ is poor by the side of the great fortunes OF
| our time, vet those fortunes are now grow
/ ing at a rate which makes their most rapid
previous accumulation seem slow.
| Now. what is going to be the end? The
/ limitations possible to luxury must have
/ been reached already or at least closely APP
\ preached. What more is there for money
I 10 b41N-i IN thar direction In FRY