Year: 1863

cate perfect national prosperity and tran
guilty. Listen to their talk, and you
will hear more of politics than of war, of
extravaganza than of economy. Perhaps
you will notice that goodly number of
these people are strangers-they are not
the set that you saw rolling in carriages
two years ago. True, they are the con-
tractors and their families, whom the un-
wonted demands of the war have lifted
from comparative mendicity to unexpected
wealth. But mayhap this is too general.
Let me adhere more closely to facts. The
merchants who deal in articles of dress
those for men and women alike-will tell
you that they never sold such expensive
stuff as they have during the present year.
The jewellers, and the sellers Of all sorts of
costly but useless gimcracks, say that their
business is larger than it ever was, But
they say, too, that their old customers have
deserted them, and in their places have
come an entirely different set. The new
comers, unused to an overabundance of
money, are prodigal in the expenditure of
it. They do not purchase articles for
their intrinsic value, but for the high
price asked for them. One prominent jew
eller told me the other day that he had
to work hard to obtain diamonds enough
to meet the calls for them, and just so
with other very costly articles in his stock
Now these are facts account for them as
we may. / confess we do not like them.
When every cent that the country can
spare is wanted to purchase material for
the prosecution of the war, it seems rath-
er hard that the people should be indul-
ging in so much extravaganza. But the
tax-gatherer has not started on his rounds
yet Let us wait for his appearance


There is, hewever, another side to this
matter-the dark side. We seldom walk
the streets without meeting men in
seedy appeared and with sad faces, who
but short time ago rode in their carria-
ges. They are the ones whom the war
has stripped of their possessions. Hon
est men but unfortunate They are the
ones who while straining every nerve to
get living, are actually scrimping them
selves to give something for the war
They help make up the munifcent boun-
ties for volunteers, and contribute what
they can for the relief Of the wounded
soldiers. Knowing their poverty, they
are not ashamed of it. They carry out
to the letter Irving's beautiful saying,
Have the courage to appear poor, and
you disarm poverty of its hardest sting.
An example of this class occurs to me as
| write. In handsome brown stone
house in this city lives a gentleman who
before the war broke out counted his mon
ey by the hundred thousands. The debts
due him by Southern merchants were un-
paid, and after months Of terrible strug-
gle and anxiety he was forced to make an
assignment. Accustomed as his family
were to the enjoyment of every comfort,
they relinquished all that were not abso-
lutely necessary, while the gentleman
gladly accepted of paltry clerkship.
Call at his house, and his wife, if not off
to some soldiers hospital or engaged in
the discharge of ordinary household du-
ties. you will find sewing for the army.
Why do they retain their splendid house.
do you ask Simply because they can
not dispose of it. They are obliged to
live with the house and the rich furni.
ture as an unceasing mockery to their
own reduced condition. Nor is this the
only case Of this kind in the city. |
could only wish they were fewer than
they are"