Year: 1875

| L. society,"


Lsndon Times.


1T must always he with pain and deli


cacy and hesitation that we make any a!lu-


sion to those who are supposed to be less


able to defend themselves. and the more


under just authority, as we'll, it must be


added as also the most sinned against.


Bat one remark plust be made. Even on
the most superficial survey of society,


whether in the great furnace of the metrop-


oils or in the lesser fires Of provincial and


rural life, who can shut hi. eyes to the


lamentable fact that the gentler and kind


lier sex have very great deal to do with


that boundless and ruinous extravaganza


which introduces all the vices, and disables


all the virtues, even to decay and distinc-


ton? 1t may be the necessity or duty of


some to spend princely fortunes in princely


pomp and luxury; if so, they are only to


be pitied for the difficulty of doing it grace


fully, and redeeming material waste with
personal refinement. But in this great town
and each season more than the last, there
are thousands upon thousands who are
manifestly spending far more than their
circumstances will allow. For very much
of this deep, widespread, and still spread
ing evil the women are answerable. 1t is
they who dress at rate far beyond their
income; they who insist on the best houses
in the best neigeborhood; they who must
have equipages for all uses, times, and
places; they who cannot abate their mani
fold requirements even when the family in
creases, and n,,bler cares shou Id take the
place of childish things.


OF course, the men have their besetting
sins and their pet.extravagances, sometimes
very costly and they have often the still
greater fault Of not explaining their pecu-
mary affairs to their wives with manly
candor Or common business-like accuracy.
They do not make the wife confdant and
Fello y-counsellor. But there cannot be
doubt that in the great majority of houses
'he lady knows quite enough to see, with
very little reflection, that she is driving her
husband and family into straitness and
embarrassment, with the risk of ruin. Peo-
pie must have very many and very good
'cres, of very good investments indeed, to
'e able to spend often the rental of a good
estate in single entertainment, dress
Makers or ain upholsterer's bill, a house at
fashionable watering place, a prolonged
continental tour, necklace, or some toy
\ ct. women are such creatures of rivalry
md display that they cannot help sort of
rinmph over those who are less
oltunate or less spirited, and SO are con-
inlnlly the foremost to inhame a perni-
ions rivalry. What can their husbands
10? They submit, perhaps. They sulk,
perhaps. They more commonly cast about
or ways and means, and, as they hear and
earn more, they are more apt to take coun-
el from despair, and give themselves up to
he stream in which they are already flo.. t.
ng helplessly. They cannot be worse than
hey are; they may be better. So they
peculate-that is they gamble. They
bon find they are victims, and set it down
their simplicity or their scruples. BY
nd by they make the discovery that in
'lch an affair it is better to be at the head
nan at the tail; better to be on the right
ide Of the wall ); better to be in the ring
han an outsider. So they press inward,
i've and take condolences, and in time are
'il!ion ::res, or bankrnp.s ana exiles. &