The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-16

way. suffered the same misfortune. A
motor boat lives a long time-often
ten or fifteen years-and it soon got
so that almost anyone could afford
some sort of motor boat. Now the
keepers of lighthouses are Aamenting
that the best people no longer go in
Tor the sport.
Conspicuous waste in house furnish
ingS is one of the very best examples
of the high cost of responsibility. To
be respectable, you must have mahog-
any furniture, and preferably an
tique' ma hogany of the colonial per-
iod. The result is that making an
tique mahogany of the colonial period
is a thriving industry, and-every fair
sized city has several antique stores.
If this stuff were all genuine it would
indicate that the population in colonial
days was-almost as large as 1t is now
Withal, this colonial mahogany is
gloomy spindle legged stuff, much
less serviceable and good looking than
modern oak and maple furniture.
1t is needless to multiply examples,
but it is interesting to note how these
standards or responsibility grew up.
Professor Thorstein Veblen traces
them back to barbaric times. when
men first began to accumulate wealth.
The man, who had the most wealth
was then the most revered and looked
up to, as he is now. Hence ways OF
vfsed. Rich men had great numbers
of wives, who were kept in idleness.
They had retinueS of servants VINO
wore ella Dorate costumes and thumped
their heads on the ground three times
whenever the boss came along. The
boss himself wore nose rings and toe
bells and other things which proved
that he did ot'have to work by max
! ing work impossible. At feasts they
served boiled nightingale tongues, and
LII o..s@ t1FHN Of O.
7 cially good to eat, but very hard to
! get.
! All of these barbaric methods of
putting on dog" are still with us.
/ The harem has dwind1ed to a single
wife, but it is still bad form for her
to work. the advanced feminists to
the contrary Notwithstanding. The
| footmen and the butler, whose only
| duties are to wear livery and look
dignified are lineal descendants of the
slaves who salaamed and thumped the
| floor with their brows. The earring
and much other jewelry has a long
| barbaric ancestry. and the Russian
salads and other strange things which
we eat at banQuets are there for the
same reason that the old Romans
served fried tiger eyes on toast.
| So these innumerable sacrifices to
the Great God Respectability' are not
| evidences of civilization, but vestiges
|
that they. are being discarded by the
most genuinely civilized men. Writers,
artists and thinkers are nearly always
men who live simply and scorn con-
ventional forms of consumption. while
the newly rich and the social climbers
are the most conspicuous of all our
conspicuous MASTERS.
This may seem to have very little
to do with wartime economy, but in
reality it is very much to the point. 1t
is suggested that you make utility
your standard of economy SO far as
the rigid requirements of respecta-
bility will let you. Don't grow shah
by, but get clothes for wear rather
than display. Don't go hungry, but
get foods that give you nourishment
and satisfaction even tho this should
entail eating such a plebeian and en-
joyable dish as beef stew. Get all the
recreation you need by doing the
things you like to do whether the idle
rich do them or not. This is what, we
are coming to anyway. Life in Eu-
rope has already been sirnplified. Ii
the lighting goes on few more years
the word responsibility will have to &c
back to its original meaning.
| Questions on TIN above or any SUBJ
1ect upon which the reader desires in
formation. should be addressed the
Topeka State Journal Information
Bureau, Frederic J. Hasltin. Director
Washington, ,: c.. with 3-cent