The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1902-10-18
PLAGUE OF LUXURY.
How 1t Has Fallen Upon the People
with Prosperous Times.
with the Introduction of Modern
ConvenIencea aud the Counhrys
Growth In sRichess Even the
Flat DweIIer LIves High.


The growth of luxurious living in
America was very slow during the hrst
so years Of the republic. Indeed, up TO
the breaking out OF our civil war the
INEQUALITIES Of fortune were NOT so
marked as to make those who liVea
sumptuously according to the staN
ards of those days seem so farremoVea
from the merely well-to-do as to be al
most in another world. In the Garner
DAYS, any sober and industrious man
could prosper, even though he did not
perform merely manual labor. There
was work for every one to do, and no
one was more in demand than Mr.. jack
of-all-trades, who now walks superfiu-
Gus in the dusty highway, with no one
to applaud his adaptability, none 10
need his ingenious services. Food was
plenty, land was cheap, rents were low.
Be honest and you will be happy was
not mere cant; it was the solemn and
the grateful truth. Pretty nearly
every one lived WELL but pretty nearly
all lived plainly. With better houses,
with better water supplies, with i'm
proved lamps for illumination and
then with the introduction OF illum-
mating gas, and most of all with the
greater wealth which came at the end
Of the civil war, the growth of luxuri-
GUS living began taking tremendous
strides. Luxury with poor light after
sunset, luxury with few of the means
of personal cleanliness, does not mean
much to us nowadays. Why, man in
a Harlem fat at $500 a year can COM
mand more of the kind Of luxury just
mentioned than say the dissolute
Charles III. ever dreamed of. But the
wealth that comes with new fortunes
to new people was really what began
the race which may be called the Mil
lionaire Stakes for all ages, says a
writer in Ainslee's Magazine.
Before these stakes were opened
there were few fortunes in this coun-
try. Some were made in the trade with
the east, some were made in strictly
domestic commerce. some were found
ed in piracy, and other adventures by
sea, but the greatest number and the
most stable were those which came
from the shrewd investments in land
which was enhanced in value by the
growth of cities. Even up to the time
that the newly rich began to srlurge
the owners of the fortunes just I'm
toned were pretty generally tolera blv
plain people, who lived very or'ietl'
and looked upon those who made IN
usual display as too vulgar to cone in
side the sacred pale which called itself
society. In New York, this class #
people at the time mentioned lived i,
the neighborhood of Washington
Square; in Philadelphia. toward the
foot of Walnut street. and in BOSTON. i,
that ever sacred Beacon street. The
were slow but sure They had ne
doubt about their position. or TIE pro-
priety with WHICH they maintained
their dignity. They did what they
pleased, but they did not please to be
in the least fantastic, theatric. os-
tentatious or conspicuous. And until
the newly rich had arrived. with the
manifest intention to stay permanent
ly, there were none with either the am
bition or the ability to dispute this SUI
premacy, which was maintained not by
an aggressiveness, but by the passive
power OF inertia.