Year: 1871

| Too Nice.


We have all heard of the story of the


foolish Midas, whose wish, that every
thing he touched might be turned into


gold, was gratifed. He soon repented


as we learn, of the fatal generosity OF


the gods when the very bread and meal


changed at his lips to the precious met al


That Midas ears finally grew into those
| of an ass was the fit termination, and


not the most incredible part of his his
| tory.


We can discover among us some of the
| descendants of Midas without even a
| look at their ears. Their assinine pro-
pensities are enough to point them out


without any other indication of their


race. We may pass by, for the present,
the more characteristic of their kind,
and examine some of the less marked
specimens


1t is wonderful how people systemat1-
cally deprive themselves of many of the


enjoyments and comforts of life by turn


ing things which are intended for use


into mere articles of finery. There


surely can be nothing more Midas-like


than this practice, which often prevails


to such an extent as to convert the ut


most abundance into total destitution.


Labor is performed and money spent


without stint, and yet with no other re-


suit than restricted ease and diminished


comfort.


You can trace the practice every


where, throughout all the course of daily
life. 1t is visible in the dwelling, the


furniture, the books, the equipage, the
clothes. Most people, in our large cities
at least, have bigger and finer houses
than they can well use, take care of, or


pay for; and daily living in a house
without ever feeling at home is of all
wretchedness the most wretched. The
furniture, moreover, is often too nice for
use, the carpet too delicate to be trod by
the common boot, the chairs and sofas of
too choice a stuff for close proximity
with the everyday coat and gown. The
best room in the house is thus not seldom
made the worst for the family, for every
member regards it as he might cham
Der of horrors, into which he dares not
put his foot without fear and trembling.


There is many man who keeps car
riage too fine for use, and breads every
time he rides in it the approach of
shower or a dirt-cart. At night he is
forced to submit to the democratic street
car or omnibus, for darkness conceals
and endangers the finery of his own equi-
page.


There are some who boast of their
libraries, and yet live themselves, and
keep others, in ignorance, because their
books are too nice for use. Their gilt
edges and choice bindings are only safe
under glass, lock and key; so they re-
main sealed to the curious, and might as
well be so many dummies of wood, such
as in fact, are occasionally found filling
up the vacant places of the shelves in the
bookcases of grand libraries.


There are a thousand ways in which
the, clothes originally, without doubt, in
tended for comfort and protection, are
turned into sources of annoyance and
danger. Obedience to fashion and de-
sire for show have metamorphosed the
many cOrporeal tortures. The hard
bound beaver hat and chignon, the spi-l
der-waist and tighJ-bodied coat, the
pinching boot and high-heeled shoe, are
but few of the various instruments of
which men and women have
contrived to make out of the simplest |
articles of clothing. Human and civ
ilized though such people pretend to be, |
it is not difficult to discern through all |
the Midas breed. Whatever might be |
useful they turn by their touch into the |
snowy and inconvenient.


Children even, in spite of the earnest
of nature, are not spared |
his absurd and cruel process of trans |
forming the useful into the snowy. The
lesire for display is apparent in their
education, their manners, their dress, and
laily walks. Is the purpose of most of
he so-called accomplishments of the
girls school to produce useful or snowy
Are the mincing ways and
;ricks of behavior so carefully inculcated
Intended to make children genteel, as it
S called, or amiable? Is the dress of a
lind or make suitable for freedom of
so essential to the healthy
of the young, or &C 6apted
,nly to the stiffness of formal presenta-
ion to company? Are the promenades
# the starched and bedizened child for
he promotion of its health, or the graf
fication of a mothers vanity and love of
display? While we commend to all pro-
,riety of conduct and delicacy of taste,
We would warn them against being too
Bazaar.