CHAPTER XI. THE ARISTOCRACY. The Growing Class Feeling-An Arrogant Plutocracy Trampling Upon Manhood and Holding in Contempt the People Who Produce Their WealthRevelations of Heartlessness, Snobbery and Extravagance Among the 400. I could not better introduce this subject than by quoting an article from the New York Journal: "Mr. Reginald Vanderbilt, son of the railroad family, played roulette one night at Mr. Canfield's gambling house in Forty-fourth street, in the city of New York, and lost $125,000. HE ROSE WITH A SMILE OF GOOD NATURED INDIFFERENCE. "Thus briefly the news report tell one incident of life in a great city, where the very rich and the very poor dwell together in harmony. "A man with six children and a wife gets up at daybreak-his wife has been up before him to prepare some thin coffee and fat bacon. "He takes his heavy crowbar and starts out for a distant After losing $125,000.00 Reginald Vanderbilt arose from the gambling table with a smile of indifference. point on the New York Central Railroad track, where he has been ordered to work. With the heavy crowbar and other tools he works all day long, tamping down the stone ballast under the ties. "He goes home at dark, having earned one hundred and twenty-five cents-a dollar and a quarter. "Mr. Reginald Vanderbilt, whose family is made prosperous by the labor of tens of thousands of men, arises at 10 or 11 o'clock, walks on Fifth Avenue, lunches at Delmonico's, rides in the park, dines leisurely, goes to the theatre and drifts into Canfield's. "He nods to the croupier, who, with his apparatus all ready to swindle, is most affable. "A small ivory ball, spun by nervous fingers, swings around the hollow wheel. It strikes, jumps, rattles, settles down, and one play is over. "For an hour or two it rattles on. Then Mr. Vanderbilt goes away, having spent the day satisfactorily. HE HAS LOST AT GAMBLING $125,000. "He never EARNED a dollar in his life. "The gambling amusement of one evening represents the labor for one day of 100,000 men. "Is Reginald Vanderbilt a bad, vicious boy? Not at all. He simply takes what our stupid social organization gives him-the labor of other men. He tries to get what pleasure he can out of life and what excitement he can for his nerves. "Not young Mr. Vanderbilt is to blame-nor can you justly blame the swindling vampire who owns the gambling house. Both of them are products of actual conditions. Both are even useful. For the little gambling story which leaks out is a splendid lesson. It impresses on men's minds the horrid injustice of turning over the earnings of a hundred thousand men, the railroad wealth of a great state, to a foolish, dissipated boy. It impresses even on the dullest mind the gross stupidity of a system which compels the many to work and suffer that the few may be dissipated, ruining themselves while they deprive others." Mr. Reginald Vanderbilt is typical of a class that has sprung up in this free country of ours within recent years. America, supposed to be the home of freedom, the haven our forefathers sought, to escape the old world aristocracy, has reared an aristocracy more powerful and rich thau Europe ever dreamed of. With money to spend like water, every luxury the world affords is theirs. Banquets and feasts such as kings of old never thought of are at their command. Comforts and luxuries they have, such as emperors and monarchs never thought possible. The very stables of the rich are such palaces of loveliness that millions of Americans would gladly exchange their homes for these. |