Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 5, May 1849

Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 5, May 1849

Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson Jones were commonplace people, but like him who cried because there were no more worlds to conquer, they were ambitious. There was one sphere within whose sacred precincts they could not enter, and they wantedto be fashionable. They looked aroundthey beheld others, who, like themselves, had once been excluded from the land of promise, and with a mighty resolution, determined to die or conquerto overthrow the chevaux-de-frise surrounding Japonicadom, with the impudence of wealth; and at lengthat length the charmed gates at which Mrs. Jones had sat in an agony of despair, burst open to her delighted gaze, and she rose in public estimation high as the frothy pyramids with which she ornamented her expensive suppers and baited her guests. After all, and in spite of the old copy that we have written, about the root of all evil, money is a great invention; especially here, where it bestows wit on fools, beauty on beasts, and covering the blots on all escutcheons, forces us to that promiscuous mingling which out-democrats democracy. How magnanimous it makes us! While the friends of the needy assist them down the hill of fortune and bid them farewell, they turn to help the lucky over its stepping stones, and lifting the pedlars pack from his shoulders, rub them down, and push him into what we call our first circle. And a pretty circle it would be, were the beginning known! But the shining gold that glitters through a handsome purse, is the passe partout; and like the princess in the fairy tale, nobody looks behind for fear of hobgoblin discoveries of his next door neighbor. Besides, reduced people are so contemptible! Put them out! With each new reign new peers arise, and so new houses should rear their tops over the old ones, when the owners are useless and the furniture tarnished. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 53960
Author: Various
Release Date: Jan 14, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Graham, George R., 1813-1894