Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1903-04-10
PLAGUE OF LUXURY.
How It Has Fallen Upon the People
with Prosperous Times.
with the Inarod action of Modern
Cenveaiences and the Coundry's
Growth In Riches Even the
Flat Dweller Lives High.

The growth OF luxurious living in
America was very slow during the iirst
90 years of The republic. lnueed, up TO
The breaking out OF oGr civil war the
inequalities of fortune were not so
marked as 10 make those who lived
anonymously according 10 the stand
ards of those days seem SO arremoved
from the merely well-i edo as to be al
most in another world. In tie earlier
DAYS. any sober and indus lrions man
could prosper, even though he did not
perform merely manual labor. There
was work for every one 10 dc, m. no
une vas more in demand ihan Mr.. Jack
uf-all-trades. who now wall.s tufeiflu-
uus in the dusty highway. with no one
10 applaud His adaptahlliiy. none to
need his inge niuus services. Food was
plenty, land was cheap. rents wsrc low.
BE. honest and you VII lie happy, was
hot mere cant; II was the solemn and
The grateful truth. Pretty nearly
every one lived well, but pretty nearly
nll lived plainly. With better houses.
with better water supplies, with i'm
proved lamps for illumination and
then with the Introduction Of Hum
mating gas, and most of all with the
greater wealth which came at the end
uf 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 person Al cleanliness, does not mean
much to lis nowadays. Why, man in
n Harlem fat at 5000 n year can COM
mand more of the kind of luxury just
ment toned than say the dissol,ite
Charles II. 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 inyes tments in land
which was enhanced in value by the
growth OF cities. Even up to the time
that the newly rich began To splurge,
The owners of the fortunes just iScn-
iioned were pretty generally tolerably
lain people. who lived very quietly
rnd locked upon those who made I'M
usual display as too vulgar to come in
side the sacred pale which called itself
society. In New York. his class of
reople at the time mentioned lived in
the neighborhood of Washington
Squire: in Philadelphia. toward the
Tot cf Walnut street. and in Boston. in
that ever sacred Beacon street. 1hey
wsre slew but sure. They had no
doubt about their position. or the pro-
rri"ty with which they maintained
their d'gnity. They did what they
rlensed. but they did not please to be
In tie least fantastic. theatric, os-
tentatieus or cons nieuous. And until
the newly rich had arrived, with the
manifest intention to stay permanent
~. there were none with either the am
hilton or tie ability to dispute this SUI
premacy, which was maintained not by
an aggressiveness, but by the passive
power OF inertia.
Where They Are Different.-"Theory