running account, $1,000; stationery, $300; books, $500; wedding presents and holiday gifts, $1,400; pew in church, $300; club dues, $425; physician's bill, $800; dentist's bill, $500; transportation of household to country and return, $250; traveling in Europe, $9,000; cost of stables, $17,000."

A San Francisco Journal, Industry, recently contained the following comment on the extravagance of two wealthy men of this country:

"The Wanamaker dinner in Paris, and the Vanderbilt dinner at Newport, costing together at least $40,000, perhaps a good deal more, are among the signs of the times. Such things presage a change in this country. This, which is only typical of a hundred more cases of like ostentatious money show, may well be likened to a feast in Rome before the end came, and the luxury in France that a century ago was the precursor of a revolution. The money spent annually by Americans abroad, mostly for luxury and worse, is estimated at a third as much as our National revenue."

And, furthermore, these people are not elevated by their great wealth. Many of them are idlers, with no useful occupation in life. Instead of spending their time and money in improving themselves and their fellowmen, their chief occupation is that of seeking amusement. gratification has become their sole aim and object in life; their second nature. The daily papers are always reciting their escapades.

Self

All remember the remarkable proceedings at Newport, when swell society dined a monkey. It is unnecessary to recount the details of this disgusting affair. It is still fresh in the public mind. Suffice it to say these ideas and tastes are degenerate, and take the place of refined and cultured ones. Such people are ladies and gentlemen in name only. They lack even simple dignity.

Though aristocrats, they are forfeiting the respect of honest people. They merit the contempt of all good citi

zens.

How can any one look up to them? They set no worthy examples, though possessed of every opportunity to do so. The Philadelphia Press some time ago published the following:

"Danger Ahead!-There is no doubt about it that New York is divided into two great classes, the very rich and the very poor. The middling classes of reputable, industrious, fair-to-do people are gradually disappearing, going up in the scale of worldly wealth or down into poverty and embarrassment. It seems unquestioned that between these classes exists, and is rapidly growing, under intentional fostering of evil men, a distinct, pronounced, malignant hatred. There are men here who are worth $10,000,000 and $20,000,000, of whom you know nothing. I know one lady, living in a magnificent house, whose life is as quiet as that of a minister should be, who has given away not less than $3,000,000 in five years, whose benefactions prior to her death will reach not less than $7,000,000, who has

in her home paintings, statuary, diamonds, precious stones, exquisite specimens of gold and silver, with costly works of every imaginable art, an inside estimate of which is $1,500,000, and she is not as rich as many of her neighbors by several million dollars. There are men here who twenty years ago sold clothes on Chatham street, who today live at an annual expense of $100,000, who wear jewels costing in reasonable stores $25,000.

"Come with me in a Madison avenue car any day, rain or shine, between the hours of ten o'clock in the morning and 5 or 6 in the afternoon, and I will find you car after car closely packed with ladies in whose ears are diamonds worth from $500 to $5,000 each, on whose ungloved hands, red and fluffy, sparkle fortunes. Walk with me from Stewart's old store, at the corner of Ninth street and Broadway to Thirtieth street and Broadway any day. I do not mean Sundays, holidays, or special occasions, but all times, and I will show you on block after block women in sealskin circulars down to their heels, worth from $500 to $1,000 each, with diamond earrings and with diamond finger rings, and other precious stones as well, carrying in their hands dainty pocketbooks stuffed with money. They represent the new rich with which New York is filling up.

"On that same street, at that same time, I can show you men to whom a dollar would be a fortune, whose trousers, torn and disgraceful in their tatters, are held about their pinched waists by ropes or twine or pins, whose stockingIcss feet shuffle along the pavement in shoes so ragged that