Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20

veaux richie. Shall the press not exclaim
against them without subjecting itself to
the allegation of being mainly responsible
for their existence? Shall the pulpit not
thunder against them without having some
Frisco oracle OF fashion rise up and say.
They are not so bad after all!' Must these
unclean birds of gaudy, and therefore
Of conspicuous plumage fly from gilded
bough to bough. fouling the very air as
they twitter their affectations of social su-
premacy. and no one to shy a brick and
to cry, Scat, you devils"
Revise thy judgments, brother Of Frisco,
and bless thy God that the middle classes,
Of which thou speakest so f1ippantly, the
'bourgeoise, with such unf1attering leyity
have no existence in this great land Of ours
outside of thine own disturbed fancy; but
that from lands end to lands end, begin
ming with the rock-ribs Of the coast of
Maine and ending not this side the Golden
Gate and the Coronado, there are myriads
of cheerful, comfortable homes where dad
and mann and granny yea. and Molly
and Polly and .Sukey' and Sis lead clean
and wholesome lives, happy In their ignor-
ance Of evil such as in the mouths Of the
400 Is familiar as household words; not
merely honest, brawny people, who work
for a living, and would scorn to have any
earls or marquises sitting around on their
cracker barrels, but educated, cultivated
people, with plenty Of money for all the
reasonable lnxuries and adornments Of life,
who would blush to sit at table with these
unclean birds and to listen to their talk
"If we are to be rescued from an aristoc-
racy of money-from a social plutocracy as
heartless as it is vulgar-the line should be
clearly drawn. 1t should be constantly
drawn It is enough for the poor devil
who gets drunk that he Is led away to the
calaboose. The same for the millionaire
with this added, that, in proportion as he
sets himself up for something, he pay the
Increased penalty for his assumption. like
wise the debauched husband and the guilty
wife; and all who think they are rich
enough to defy the Commandments OF God,
and the convention OF man, and to buy i'm
munity from scandal.
"A very rich man was reported not long
ago to have said that he would be ashamed
to face the eourtssof Heaven with only his
millions to pay his entrance fee Another
declared that the time is coming when ex-
cessive riches Wilt need to make apology
for their existence That such sentiments
find expressi6h IN such quarters is of good
augury They should be supported, not
undervalued.e 81 There is way of making
the money standard odious. and that is by
making it's corrupt, and corrupting use odi-
GUS. The 100 are living reproach to
riches. they are q striking example Of the
base employment pf wealth. Make their
haunts Of luxury and alimony not only in
famous, butd. uncomfortable: drive their
murderous white ghosts and red rovers and
purple assassins from the speedways; put
such a brand upon, their nomenclature that
each individual willihave to outlive 1t, MAX
ing his own separate record for good and
not for evil, and In another generation we
shall see, at least. less brutal parvenuism
and DESTINATIONS display for the perversion
OF the young Il not cleaner conditions, in
the parent nest"
A Sharp Reply.
Later, in his reply to some criticisms. he
said:
I'm the early '70s Fisk stood for the hor
rid example, just as Devery stands now.
Toe show was the thing; the turnout as
they called 1t. The Four Hundred had
come neither to their patrinaony NOR their
patronymic; but they existed in a crude.
coarse way. expressing themselves in bang
tails and shirt fronts and shiners-a tribe
too brazen and noisy. perhaps, but unde-
niably rich The men had not yet learned
the stony stare and the brutal swagger OF
the bucks Of the Jardin Mahilfs and the