Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-09-19
Danger that Threaten. the Nation
p1soosrENr AND DISHONESTY CAUSED
BY THE RECKLESS ExTRAvAGANcE
OF THE RICH.

Wherever we follow our spectacular
rich 1.-THE newspapers force US to follow
themj we find them parading like eccen-
tricities, taking off shoes and stockings
In Baltimore after fashionable gather
ing to wade in public fountain; playing
leap frog in Washington (men ana
women,) after smart dance; wandering
off for hours In the Bois de Boulogne I'm
couples with husbands and wives sepa-
rated,) after a brilliant Paris dinner;
watching the body to body contortions
of Young woman and boa constructor
(this in New York before company OF
men;) applauding unmentionable feat
ures of the stupid Seeley revel; gambling,
porging, drinking, gallivanting, in short
Challenging the devil to offer any fillip
for their faded senses! What wonder IT
the unsophisticated West is yielding to
this contamination, as appears In
recent Boston paper which speaks edi-
torially of tan entertainment In Min
neapoiis where three hundred men gath
cred to enjoy the dancing of a nude ar
lists model"
All of which means, if 1t means any
thing, that powerful element In our
"best''-that Is our richest society,-is
setting a profigate example in this
country, an example that threatens the
sanctity and stability of countless Ameri-
can homes. Pleasure and show and
money! Dress for the women! Gems for
the women! And a rich husband! There
is the poisoned lure that tempts our
maidens! Pleasure and show and money!
And Of these three but one is essential;
money, for money will buy the other
two. Does any one doubt that thousands
of our women are practically selling
themselves for money in marriage and
then selling themselves again for money
in divorce? Does any one doubt that this
pressure for riches brought upon men by
our women wives, sweethearts and 80
ciety,) is fundamental cause of the dis
honesty that is more and more tainting
our business and political life? All, now
we have said the word, the bitter, wound
ing word-dishonesty! There is the dan
ger that threatens this republicans
honesty among its citizens. All other
evils are less than this, all cures for evils
are vain until this evil Is cured, for the
whole principle of representative govern
menu TAILS dUJeCtiy Wuou euo Poo
pie strive only to plumber and betray the
people!
If one of our writer's twenty years ago or
even ten years ago had dared to question
the honesty of the American people, he
would have been counted an impudent
renegade, a babbler whose stupid insults
would have aroused only contemptuous
smiles. But to-day it is different, our
eyes have been opened, and, without
surprise though with dismay, We see
able men commissioned by our great
magazines to go from city to city, from
state to state, from one business enetr-
prise to another, with the sole purpose
of proving the existence of wholesale
corruption in public and private affairs.
And month after month we read these
CHASTITY revelations until it seems as II
everything is rotten, all our cities, all
our states, the whole world of business
and finance, even our national govern.
ment, even our courts. And we take 1t
as matter of course!LCleveland Moffett
in Success.