Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1904-12-09
GOOD OLD TIMES.
A Study Of Actual Conditions in For
mer Periods Destroys Glamour.


Good old times" is a popular sub
ject There probably were good old
times and there probably were bad old
times. Good and bad were doubtless
mixed in about the same proportion
then as now. II there Is any difference
there is perhaps now more good and
less bad The world has spells OF riot
Gus living. extravaganza and artifciali-
ty. but il has spasms of morality re-
form and economy, very much as the
stock market has periods Of imitation
and panic even though the permanent
trend Of values is higher
Just as there men who live so ex-
tremely in the present time they have
no patience with the past. there are
those who quarrel with everything that
is and lsud everything that was
In the current Fortnightly Review a
writer is so much dissatisfied with the
world generally and society specifically
that he would turn back the hands OF
the clock to the days OF Louis XVI. II
may be that the writer has an intimate
personal acquaintance with society to-
day as of the days OF Louis XVI, but
there is some doubt about this. He
says:
Ten thousand people in the days OF
Louis XVI were housed under the roof
at Versailles during the royal fetes
Let us assume that, take 1t all around
three servants waited on each. What
- L
anything but a hurry burly out of over
1000 guests.
For shame upon the hostess or host
OF today who could not give a little
dinner party to 1000 guests with 5000
or 5000 servants to wait upon them!
We have so decayed in the art OF
wholesale hospitality that good many
housewives would have to borrow a
few spoons, cups. plates and chairs
from the neighbors to entertain a coy,
sociable little bunch OF 2 900 guests at
tended by 5000 or 5000 servants.
The magazine writer says they were
the flower of an old and noble civiliza-
ton" A good deal OF foolishness has
been written about this old and noble
civilization" Much OF 1t was founded
in brigandage rapine, and in unwise
and unfair taxation. The benefciaries
OF the loot and their descendants re-
fined themselves by soft living and
good food and called themselves Gull
tured because they learned to play the
Lutte. dance the minuet and wear q
powdered wiz
The Fortnishtly Review writer be-
comes positively indignant at the
American millionaire who buys pic
lures, books and taaostries. 1t is likely
that some rich persons buys these
things without proper appreciation Of
them. but a very GOOD way to learn ap-
probation OF them Is 10 own them.
The very fact that a man is willing to
be eXtfavaG2ut lor these things indi-
Gates that De suspects there Is some
thing i'm them som where or somehow.
II Is useless to bc.ate the American
millionaire He Us here 10 81 IS. Every
sane American who can become mil
lionsire is going TO do so The average
American millionaire is a good fellow
He may in some o his types be a little
loud In his clothes. little boisterous
about the mouth or little strutty in
his walk. lie may smack his lips at
table and in rare Instances eat with his
knife. but he is more Of man than the
pale snsppy, languid creature who, be-
cause he had a hardworking grandpa,
never created a dollars worth of value,
never invented a machine or a process
never thought OF way 10 direct the
energies Of other men, never dug for
gold or iron-neyer did anything but
sit around with the ladies, talk nice
and look neat
When a poor man by hustling makes
a million dollars. it is almost certain
ty that in addition TO the factor OF luck
he has brain and will power and grit
Washington Star.