New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-28
"BECAUsE I LOOK PR0sPERoUsr'

Everybody Is awfully good to me because
look prosperous and wear diamonds!' This
sentence with a picture of underdressed
and overbejeweled woman. appears ON a jewel
lers poster displayed about the city, accom-
panied by the Illuminating bait: mo employ
er's references required" 1t is an advertise
ment which suggests much to the student of
social conditions. The shOpkeeper, Of course,
wants to sell his wares He sells them on the
instalment plan, and he naturally makes the
best bid he can to his desired customer the shop
girl, or. perhaps we should say, the saleslady.
But what a picture of pitiful ambitions and
shallow minds does he paint!
The moraIist may condemn this bid
temptation comparable to that Of the liquor
dealer who tries to make drunkards. 1t is as
immoral to appeal to the vanity of the shop girl
for her own undoing as to play on the passions
for drink gaming. 1t is wicked to tempt her
to extravaganza of which she would be fearful
| to have her employer know. Yet, moral or i'm
moral, we must recognize the fact that the ad
vertiSer trying his best to suit his poster
to what he believed was popular sentiment He
was trying to talk to a large body of possible
customers in their own language and make an
appeal which would find an instructive response
in their hearts Probably he knew his business.
Probably he struck the chord suited to his pur-
pose. Probably he presented ideal of sue
cess and of social relations deeply fixed in the
bosoms, not merely Of the shop girls, but of
other multitudes.
Everybody is good to me because look pros
porous" What cynical picture of human re-
lationships that is to hold up to the boy or girl
in any circle of society! How hopeless the char
acter shaped TO such a standard. Yet who shall
say 1t IS not everywhere a prevalent one? 1t
is an ideal of vanity pretence. falsehood and
utterly material seIfshness but it lords it over
a large part Of the world with most aIluring
tinsel. The shop girls who look prosperous in
cheap jewelry, when their shoes are probably
worn out and their clothing-which does not
show-inadequate, make pathetic figure 1t is
easy TO regret the day--not at all in the spirit
or snobbishness, but simply for their own well
fare-when class distinctions made natural for
them scale Of living commensurate with their
means and provided Them with social circle
which rendered pretence at once unnecessary
and unavailing. With more reason however
we may regret that the society which they emu
late sets up for them so often the same cheap
and vulgar standard Of the instament jeweer.
Why shouldn't the shop girl think that the way
to have good time is to look more prosperous
than she is? OF course, she would be better off
II she saved her money and were content to seem
what she Is So would everybody else Yet
IN any circle in our large cities the people who
are ready to be simply themselves and live their
own lives instead of hanging by their eyebrows
on to some other social or financial sphere. seem
to be In the minority. The advertisers doctrine
is preached in business and the clubs: IF Won
want TO get on you must wear fine clothes and
impress people that You are getting on" The
shop girl has some reason to believe that peopIo
VIII be good to her If she can fool tLen into
supposinG that she is prosperous enough TO be
good TO them. OF course. she is a shallow
minded, silly creature if she thinks that such q
good time Is really worth having even while It
lasts, not to speak of thinking it can last: but
many Il wiser head than hers has made n bor-
gain day crush at Vanity Fair The instaIment
dealer IN gewgaws adopts cheap and nasty
methods but his spirit is quite in the fashion.
The pity Is that in a land Of promise and opDor
tunity and universal education prevailing tone
OF life should be such as to hold out to the great
body of young people-rich and poor. we'll horn
and III forthcoming into consciousness of them.
selves and their possibilities of accomnItshmar+
and enjoyment, an ideal so material. so sora,d
so selfish, so cheap and so emptv. However,
phrased whether for the shop girl or the cbiIi
of luxury, 1t is an ideal that was never mod
more terribly tempting to humanity than II -
with to-day.