The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-13
RIvALLING OLD ROME.

London Globe.
Roman luxury in the days of the empire
mass of the people. Things Which are now
necessaries to an English artisan were luxu-
ries to a Roman patrician. and the whole
nation lived much closer to nature than we
do. Besides, 1t must always be remembered
that 1t is the exceptions which survive IN
the memories OF mankind. We have all read
OF freak dinners in the United States. and
when the zealander makes those long fore
told observations from the ruins Of London
of a newspaper describing them may flutter
to his hand He will read the description
with interest but he will be more than or
dinarily dense IL he Judges therefrom that
II was the regular practice of the Weather
classes in America in the twentieth century
to expend enormous sums dog-dinner
rooms built out of rosebuds at dollar a
bud.
every within 1t was possible to crafty, and
who expended upon their fancies sums that
in any age would be enormous, nobody
would think of denying. But the very
fact that so many and diverse writer's among
their contemporaries selected them their
awful examples" shows that they were
startling and exceptional cases. 1t was
not luxury but socialism that brought about
the fall Of the Roman Empire. The luxury
was, perhaps, more inhuman at least
more inconsiderate. but it was probably not
really greater than our own, and II was
always confined to comparative minute
proportion of even the jewellers in Rome
itself. "Panem ct Circenses" not the pearl
draught of Antony or the Golden House of
Nero. rotted the Roman fabric.
The emperors always dreading the resto-
ration OF aristocratic influence sought as
their safeguard the favor of the mob. and
purchased II by the greatest and most per
fectly organized system of socialism that
the world has ever known. Driven on by
the memorable necessities of a position,
which had no ancient and can have no mod
ern parallel they strove to convince the
people of their benevolence. The legacy of
Julius to the Roman people doubtless found
ed the empire, but It carried with 1t the
seeds of death to the nation. Each OF his
and his own predecessors in generosity. Free
food and ma gnificent spectacles began to 10
expected from Caesars. not as favor, but
as q right. The people demanded that
they should be given bread for which they
had not worked, and amusements for which
they need not pay.
The manliness and self-rellance which
had carried the Eagles across the Danube
and the Tweed died out Of them. and they
fell as they deserved to fall, before the
races who still believed that .lf man will
not work neither shall he eat" much less be
gratuitously entertained by a succession Of
thrilling spectacles "Panem ct Circenses''
hooves US to beware lest the catchwords Of
newer socialism be the requiem OF our
own. The rich were robbed in order that
the emperor-that is the State-mtght have
the means to please the people and the
people very soon began to see harm in
the crimes which made this vicarious be-
nevolence possible Both the physical and
the moral stamina OF the nation were fatal
ly undermined, and for centuries before the
final crash nothing but the lingering majes-
ty of the Roman name kept the Barbarians
at bay.