Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-17
VARIOUS FOOLISH PEOPLE,.
Throw Away Money and Get Little in
Return for X.

Too many Americans have a mania for
spending money solely to display its
possession, and most of them cannot
afford it. A few rich men are afflicted
with this form of megalomania. but. as
rule, they are not spendthrifts, other
wise they would not be rich. The money
megalomaniac is the mainstay of Broad
ways lobster palaces" and ne is called
a lobster, in the expressive slang of
the district.
One of them wrote a letter to a city
paper recently complaining that walters
in high-class restaurants tried to get
him to eat meat cooked in foreign ways,
strange to him, when he wanted Eng
fish mutton chops or porterhouse steak.
His resentment seemed to be based sole
ly on the idea that the walters insult him
by showing him how to save money.
Surely he cannot think he is living we'll
when he confines his gastronomic efforts
to a monotonous diet of steak and NUT
ton chops. As his state OF MIND is typi-
cal of his class, and has an important
in such cases is the cost of high living,
the results that follow are worth consid-
ering.
From the Chicago packers down to the
humblest retail butcher. the meat trade
of the country complains Of this waste
of good flesh food caused by the craze
for eating only the most expensive cuts
Luckily for the purveyor of neats, most
Americans who ask for English mutton
chops do not know what they are talk
ing about Only two whole chops of this
description can be cut out of a Sleeps
on L; ;e,
If all the people who order such chops
insisted on having half q kidney In each
chop, all the sheep slaughtered in the
country would not supply the New York
market alone If our HOLSTERS" were
posted on this point it would be hard to
say what the price of the real article
would be. AS the meat on each side is
just as good and looks the same to those
who are not acquainted with the ana
tony of a sheep everybody Is happy and
the HOLSTERS save money without know
ing it.
In the case of beef it is even worse A
steer that weighs 1900 pounds or more on
the hoof will not yield more than 40
pounds of the choice steaks and cuts
that the. spenders demand, and does not
yield more than 200 pounds of meat that
can be made to masquerade as such cuts
The rest of the carcass has to be sold at
disproportionately low prices and is hard
10 sell at all.
In our best restaurants the cheapest
cuts are cooked in way that makes
them tender, and as such meat is more
nutritious than tenderloin steak, those
who appreciate good eating according to
continental standards get the benefit of
prices that are comparatively low be-
cause the average American is ignorant
of these facts.
This money megalomania applies TO al
most everything that enters into the cost
of living People rent inside and poorly
lighted and ventilated apartments in
large buildings because the lobby is an
ished in onyx and bronze and the eieva-
tor and hall boys wear natty uniforms
Meaningless display costs them more
than comfort Instead of living in a
community of people of moderate means
and neighborly instincts. they seek to
rub elbows with the rich In apartment
house elevators, though that is the ex-.
tent of their acauaintanceship. Or they
buy automobiles and pay more for
garage rent than they can afford for
4
These megalomaniaes deprive them-
selves of the pleasure of going to the
theatre or the opera because they will
not sit in the gallery. If they cannot
have orchestra chairs or a box they stay
away, and as going to the theatre does
not make much of a show anyway. they
stay away or go to moving picture
show when they think no one will see
them. They stay away from places
worth seeing because they cannot afford
to drive up to the entrance in an automo-l
bile. New York possesses an eating
place that is a veritable fairyland, es-'
pecially on a summer evening but hum
dreds that could afford to eat there
never do because they cannot drive up I'M
style.
SnObbery makes miserable the lives of
the snobs. They worry themselves to-
death about ineOnsequentials, and in try
ins to keep up what they think is a re-
spectacle appearance they lose their own
self-respect. The man who is afraid to
walk into an opera house when Million
aires drive up in carriages and atitomo-
biles has lost his self respect New
York Commercial