The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
MIR. wATTERsON's ASSAULT ON
NEWPORT SOCIETY,".

Mr.. watterson's attacks upon New
port are attracting attention and causing
comment. 1t is generally believed that the
noted Kentuckian has exaggerated some
what the follies and vices Of those peo-
pie who for years have occupied too much
of the space Of certain newspapers and
been a text for those who rail at existing
conditions. Doubtless it will be assumed
that Newport society as 1t Is represented
in the newspapers is the effect of million
airism upon the successors of those who
reason why a limit should be put to the
wealth one man may acquire. But those
who take a more conservative view OF the
matter will discover that whatever special
follies are found among the successors
Of the very rich are due to idle and aim
same upon those who succeed to more
liberal financial conditions than their par
ents were born to, whether they have the
income OF fifty millions or fifty thousand
dollars. Young men who ride to hounds
following the scent of an amise-seed bag
in lieu Of a fox are more ridiculous than
the young men who loaf about public
places in smaller towns, but both alike
are the victims of an aimless life. The
only comforting thought regarding both is
that, as a rule, II is but three generations
from working in shirt sleeves to working
in shirt sleeves again. That idleness leads
to worthlessness and viciousness is as un-
alterable as the law which makes death
the penalty of taking deadly poisons.
Every day attention is called to men who
fathers left them with the means to lead.
and the ommen is that this generation
has not the character of its predecessors.
Such conclusion Is wrong; the Industrious
father who led a strenuous life let his
sons grow up In idleness and without any
when the time came for them to be men
they had not the intellectual or moral
stamina to take up the responsibilities
which the fathers carried successfully.
The Newport people whom Mr.. Waiter
son SO severely scores are about the same
as most of the human race would be if
1t could. The common desire for wealth is
that it affords an opportunity for idleness
and puerite amusement. To get along
without work is a very common impulse.
The prejudice of the poor against the rich
is really a matter of leisure and of escaping
daily toll. The contention for a shorter
day Of labor is really inspired by a desire
for more time for aimless idleness. True,
those who advocate fewer hours of work
talk Of the leisure being used for mental
and physical improvement, but those who
know how spare time is used know hat
very little of it is devoted to any useful
culture. The mass that must toll would
have the leisure of Newport because idle
ness appears the one thing desirable, and
useful employment the primal curse to
Protestant Church with a most melan-
choly collection of hymns, making religion
a doleful affair, but he unconsciously rose
to the stature of a philosopher when in
one Of those hymns he put the idea that
Satan finds some mischief still for idle
hands to do" He may do the mythical
Satan great injustice, but it is certain that
the aimlessly idle find all that the word
mischief can imply and are its victims.
One of the most deplorable results of the
Newport life is that all who come within
it's baleful influence cease to be Americans.
Newport society apes the customs and
fashions of the titled and aimless in Eu-
rope; no American is as worthy of ad-
miration as a penniless lord. 1t paid al
most abject homage to the VIGOROUSLY dis
solute Duke Boris, whom the se~lf-respect-
ing wife of an American President would
not meet socially. That society has no
use for the virile Americanism Of Theo-
dore Roosevelt, but 1t worships the most
insignificant foreigner who can claim a
title. 1t has other weaknesses, not as
fragrant as Mr.. Watterson portrays. which
should be a warning rather than cause for
invective. At the same time let us all re-
member that the leisure and the wealth
which mankind covet as the greatest hu-
man good would make us all members OF
some four hundred, frivolous and otter
vulgar in ostentatious display of wealth
Let US be thankful that the worlds work
which must be lone prevents US all from
falling to the conditions which Mr.. Wat
taraor G. fnriouSlv aSSaiIs