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Show I: ..avw; THE MOHHID CBAYING FOB EXCITEMENT. BY MES. CRAGIE. Copyright, 1905, by the Central News and Press Exchange. I It seems to md that wc havo reached :t Kravc crisis In oicr social history. There Is I something very liinhcnllhy In our social I llfo. a morbid crm'lng for excitement and sensation revealed In overy class, and ehown by tho tprrlblo contrasts In our midst. Wc sec, cf tho ono hand, lunatic asylums and hospitals crowded to overflowing over-flowing by wrest died creatures whoso nerves have given way under tho stress and strain of miMlcrn existence, and on the other hand we- sco palaces of pleasuro like tho London Coliseum, with four performances per-formances dally, nnd tho great I-IIppo-dromo of New Yorfc. with Its rush and ex-cltumcnt. ex-cltumcnt. There Is something wrong Bomowhcro when wo find that in tho hospitals hos-pitals they keep near at hand remedies tfor overy cozicolvablo poison to administer promptly to the n'ould-bo suicides that 1 aro brought In cviyry day young womon who have given themselves to despair through lovo aftalrw, and young men who have been over-wo tried by business troubles. trou-bles. Such a stato cu things was unknown Jn tho days of our grandmothers. People do not seem strong enough now to stand reeponslblJty. They get frightened fright-ened at tho obligations which their forefathers fore-fathers boro with cheerfulness, or thought nothing about. Yourg men. for Instance, chirk marrlago becau so they aro not prepared pre-pared to face life wJth a wife nnd children chil-dren on a modcrato Income or if they plunge Into matrlnirjny and are weighted weight-ed with Its Inevitable cares, thoy frequently fre-quently break down. Snobbishness and i envy have a good dual to do with It. In every class of life peoplo want to vlo with their next-door neighbors. They aro not prepared to lead their own lives according to their means. It does not matter how largo their Income JA. thev aro seldom Eatisflcd, and their requirements are goners; gon-ers; lly In excess of their banking account. I have heard people ;say, "Poor So-and-19 So; ho and his wife have only got $10,000 a vear between them! Absolute penury! Yet $10,000 a year used to bo considered wealth at ono time. Indeed, in the early Victorian period an Income of $1KK or even $3000 was considered adequate and comfortablo for people In good society. Nowadays It Is rogarded a pauperism. I am suro middle-class people spend a good deal too much money on food and dress nnd extravagances of nil kinds. The new fashion of dining out nt restaurants is ono of their little follies. Tho French, of course, havo dono tho same thing for years but In a very different way. AVlth thorn It Is economy. Tho Pronch citizen, with his wife and family, go out to a little lit-tle restaurant and get a good meal nt a cheap price, save servants' wages and household expenses. But when English peoplo go to a resiauranC It Is not to got a cheap dinner, but .an expensive xme. The old ideals of economy have been forgotten in tho average English household. house-hold. Now- tho mlddlo-class mother and her daughter will not rcmcan themselves by taking a share of tho domestic duties, and that is tho chief cause of tho "servant "ser-vant problem" about which we hear so much. Servants resent quite naturally and justly having to wait upon lazy women wo-men who do nothing In tho naturo of practical work the whole day long. Servants Ser-vants aro human beings, nnd thoy do not see tho Justice of tolling hard In the kitchen kitch-en while their mistresses sit In tho drawing-room Idling over bridge and gossip, or rustic past them in line gowns with a word of command. I am suro that If a lady does some kind of work It may be artistic or professional work if sho lack tho domestic hand her servants will labor la-bor with good will and zeal, encouraged by tho knowledgo that while they are busy In their own way sho Is laboring not less hard In her way. All our royal Princesses Prin-cesses aro most industrious women, and maintain the old Ideals of household life To understand tho economies of housekeeping house-keeping ono must go to New England homes, whero tho wlvs of Judges and public men do not think It beneath them to superintend tho servants In tho kitchen nnd busy themselves with every llttlo household duty. So wno It with us in tho old feudal times. Wc talk about tho march of democracy, but really the feudal system was a truo kind of socialism. social-ism. There was nearly tho same gulf between be-tween class and class when tho lord and lady dined at the same board ns their servants and worked with them In tho house and in tho field, differing from them only to tho degree that tho servants had l!s responsibilities and duties than tho master and mistress. This great gulf between the classes Is ono of tho saddest and ono of tho most dangerous characteristics of modorn society. so-ciety. I confess that when I havo been through tho factories of tho north of England, and seen tho lives tho hard, miserable, dreary lives of tho poor girls who work thero for so many hours a day as though they were machines in return re-turn for less - than a "living wage," I havo wanted to apologize to them. The generosity and forbenranco of the poor is to mo astonishing. They glvo so much and receive so little. Yet I doubt whether their forbearance has not a limit. In America It Is already beginning to be considered con-sidered a crlmo to havo too much money. Justly so. in my opinion. It Is a crlmo against society that a man like Rockefeller Rocke-feller by mere luck should own all tho oil of a vast province. These great monopolies and trusts of America will bo doomed when tho people sco that they aro fools to submit to them. Poor Have Excuse. To my mind tho poor have more excuse ex-cuse In their extravagance than tho well-to-do. Their lives arc generally so gray and so devoid of brightness that they may be pardoned when they spend all their poor savings for a few brief hours of delight. I havo sometimes said to factory girls, "Why don't you put by your money for a rainy day, instead of buying that now dress, or that new hat you havo set your mind on?" And they havo answered. "Oh, yes; wo know it is foolish, and all that, but well, wo want tho thing, and, after all, one can but dlo onccl" I can understand that, nnd, Indeed, In-deed, I lovo tho llttlo extravaganpes and vanities of youth. They aro natural and sweet. I ndmlro tho broad humanity of tho Old Testament. In such sentences as "Can tho bride forget nor nttiro?" Tho Puritans made a great mistake In crushing crush-ing out tho Joys of youth. But that Is a very different thing from the selfish luxury lux-ury of tho well-to-do and elderly, nnd tho craving for continual excitement and sensation sen-sation with which people now seem possessed. pos-sessed. Ono sees a painful sign of this unhealthiness in tho dangerous nntl exciting ex-citing exhibitions given at tho muslo halls, whero people go to gloat over some acrobat who risks his life In some daring feat for their delectation. It Is tho same sort of spirit which sends the Spanish people to watch tho horrors of a bull light, and which. In the old days, filled tho Roman, amphitheaters with people lusting' for tho sight of blood. It Is a sign of decadence. Humanity's Hope. Tho only hope, in my opinion, for tho future of tho raco Is tho probability that all this unhealthiness Is but a passing phaso. Tho generation which Alls tho asylums and Hospitals with every kind of nervous disease will die o" j",rgV..co of to a sturdier. BtrOngcr simpler raco ot mon and women who will "Norclso sen restraint and preserve their great body of to nation is Htlll.ine lievo. sound. We have stl .1 In ijy vlncos a good stock of virile. e"-yt men and women from whom o ccnm tho ranks, out of which t c vous members of society will i rapldli ciw appear by the very laws of nat 'rc- " tlrno. however, we saw the avliy or. our social diseases before they spread too dec Why should these exhausted people bo so 111-tralncd, Ill-used, and Ill-understood?" |