The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-04-14
NEW YORK SPENDING
IN LAVISH FASHION
Enelishnlan Comparing 1t With Wars
Horrors Stand Astaunded At
Indifference.
METROPOLIS LOST
IN PLEASURE ORGY
ANYTHING For a Good Time Is the -ip-
parent Desire OF MILLIONS Who
Swarm In Lighted Cafes.

/ London, April lS.-oSuioy D'N"N"'
1.-THE famous correspondent, sends to-
the Daily Mail a graphic description
of the orgy of spending and pleasure
seeking which now holds New York
| in its grasp. He says:
! New York is one of the trasedles
of the war.
/ Yet, even as l write the words, they
seem absurd. Where is the sugges-
ltion Of tragedy? l look out over the
city from the sixteenth floor of my
hotel and everything seems as usual
the same crystalline brightness of
the atmosphere. the same white whins
| of steam against the bluest OF skies,
the same glimmering panorama OF
speckless. towering edifices. Or
watch it at night. gemmed and twink
ling with billion lights-the same
New York one has always known, with
a movement, a joyousness, an exhil-
laration quicker and sharper edged
than. anything we ever had In Lon
don.
Where, then, is the tragedy? Why,
lprecisely there: in this very fact and
Econdition of sameness. New York, in
credibly enriched by the war, is pur-
suing the old life. playing the ola
giddy social game as thought nothing
elese In the world mattered or even
Iexisted. The gayest, the most crowd
ed. the most altogether hectic season
in its history is drawing 10 a close
The social pace of Manhattan
Island was always a hot one. This
wear 1t has been a gallop. New York
was always a pleasure-loving city. But
hosr
all It's own frenzied records. 1t has
known many booms. but never such
a boom as the war has brought it
a sustained and wholesale inundation
as this It has seen millionaires spring
lup by the score, but now II has to
number them by the hundred.
Care Nothing for Dollars.
/ How little Americans really care
for dollars is shown by the prodigaltty
with which they spend them They
enjoy the pursuit; they are glad TO
have the symbol of victory in their
hands and pockets; but they are the
last people in the world to hoard
what they have gained. Instead, they
fling II around with unrestrained
gusto One cannot imagine an Ameri-
can miser In this careless, spend
thrift atmosphere, among these In
satiable gamblers he would either be
reformed or snuffed out.
And of all the cities in the Union.
New York is the one with by far the
most ample facilities for relieving
Americans OF their winnings. 1t exists
very largely for that end, and bong
practice has made it almost as expert
as Monte Carlo. But never before
has 1t had anything like the oppor-
tunities of the past few months for
indulging it's art All the Americans
who need 10 live abroad and ali who
were accustomed TO flee to Europe
from the terrors of the American win
ter have this year flung themselves
upon New York. The metropolis was
never so choked with people who were
Itching to spend within its borders
the money that In the years of peace
pla stored Paris and Egypt and the
Mediterranean.
And besides these repatriated sons
and daughters of the Republic, cut off
from their NORMAL scenes of pleasure
land Obliged to fall back upon New
York, is, at any rate, better than
nothing, there has been a vast influx
of new mlllionaircs, the direct product
of the war.
Surpasses Western Wealth.
Even In the great days of the steel
boom of nearly fifteen years ago. when
every train that reached Manhattan
Island seemed to deposit fresh car
loads Of Western millionaircs con-
sumed with the one ambition to out
shine and outspend the effete and con-
acrvative denizens of New York--eVen
then the hotels and theaters were not
so crowded. Fifth Avenue was not
such an impossible jam of superiative
cars the opera was less bediamoned,
the restaurants saw fewer dinners that
would have made Lucullus gasp and
stare: luxury was less of common
place. and extravaganza rioted less oh
trusively than today. New York then
was merely intoxicated with money.
2 To-day it reels and staggers and stinks
with it.
, On one fresh from the heroic tenn
per, the earnestness and abnegations
rof England, the city. in It's present
dementia of profligacy, makes an APP
/ palling impression And it appalls him
not less when he reflects that a bare
two years ago the aimless, taWdry life
which he finds here in full swing
= was not essentially dissimilar from the
life that he and his were leading on
the other side of the Atlantic. Well,
we in England have put all that be-
hind us for a very long while to come.
3 New York also may he reused, and at
no very dlStant GATE, t0 nDblef
. mood. But for the present, its i'm
, mersion in getting and spending shuts
off from 1t Europe and the war as
l with an impenetrable curtain.
? Speech Is Bitter.
IT is in vain that the papers here
? published from all the beligerent ma
I tons brilliant and comprehensive ac-
counts of what is going on. Nobody
has time TO read them. Still less has
anyone time to reflect upon them
anyone, | mean, in that dining. dane
! ing. infinitely Photographed section
of New York that calls itself society,
: and that misrepresents the metropolis
in the eyes of America and the world
But outside the whirl and froth Of
an existence that seems a continuous
orgy. there are sober. sensitive, keen
| thinking an and women to be met by
the hundreds, In whom the war and
! American policy in regard to 1t usurp
all other thoughts and emotions.
They are the people who support the
: linnumera BILE war charities with which
> New York abounds. Heart and soul
they denounce and abominate the
; figure their. country has been made
to cut during the past eighteen
months. No Englishman would dare