What a motley crowd of human beings throng the board walk! How
like the vast interminable deep is this thronging, surging mass
of humanity, where they, like restless waves, pause awhile on
the margin of the boundless sea until the ebb tide moves out in
the vast sea of life. "Here the fury of fashion ebbs and flows,
a constant stream, representing all the states of the Union."
Here are men with silk plug hats and petite mustachios who seem
"straight from Paris!" Others whose ruddy faces and commanding
air proclaim them genial sons of the Emerald Isle, while still
others are the possessors of so many and varied characteristics
one might be justified in calling them mongrels. One would think
the lovely Pleiades themselves came every night on a long
journey to look at the board walk with an interrogation mark in
every twinkle. Here come youth and beauty seeking pleasure.
Here, too, you will see old age trying to recall their youthful
days "when the serious looking canes they so carefully carry
gave place to the foppish switches they so artfully carried in
their younger days." Here the gilded doors of idleness and
pleasure are ever ajar but they never lead to the halls of noble
aims and the palaces of worthy ambition. Here the entrances are
always crowded with that class of people whose motto is, "Things
are good enough as they are," or "Eat, drink and be merry," or
"We are weary of well doing."
Here beauty assembles, but it is ofttimes not the beauty of
life. It is the glaring show and tinsel array of society that
attracts great numbers, who, like the beautiful colored night
moths, are enamoured of the gleaming light, venturing nearer
until they scorch their wings, or blinded by the brilliant rays
plunge headlong into the flames and are burned to death. "The
allied army of fashion meets here." Here, then, is their
Thermopylae or Argonne, it may be.
The test here as elsewhere is the using of means already
acquired to some worthy end. Many can acquire wealth, but few
know how to use it wisely The art of spending is more readily
acquired than that of saving, as may be easily seen. An article
appeared in an American newspaper telling how the appearance of
the world's greatest spender startled London by blazing her way
into the Prince of Wale's box in Albert Hall - a literal walking
diamond mine. Her costume, which contained more than seventy-
five thousand diamonds and pearls, was insured for five million
dollars. The article stated that this person would visit the
United States to show us something real in the art of spending.
We as a people need no instruction in this art, but need to read
more our illustrious Franklin's advice on saving. One wonders
what this dressing may bring to the American home or how much
the common interests of mankind will be helped! What a blessing
is wealth when rightly used! True society looks inwardly and not
outwardly, and all that does not belong to it falls away as does
wheat fanned by a sheet; the trash and chaff being blown away.
One cannot tell the rich from the poor in their camouflage, but
the really rich in character are easily discernible, arrayed in
modest garbs as unostentatious and serviceable as those of the
nightingale or the thrush. Like all great people the melody of
their lives eclipses their array until only the soul-thrilling
memories of what they are or were remain to gladden the weary
pilgrim on life's road. The indigo bunting is arrayed in
splendid robes, yet his song is high pitched and rasping. But
the dull robed songsters delight the ear. Some people have not
yet learned that a fifty-dollar hat can never cover the
deficiency of a two-cent head. Ofttimes money only makes a mean
life more conspicuous. True, some of these people dress more
becomingly than they suspect for their slim, pointed-toed
English shoes admirably match their few ideas. They are much
persecuted for their belief, thinking that a number six shoe can
be worn on a number nine foot.
It is almost as interesting to watch people in the act of
scraping acquaintance as it is to see a group of flickers love-
making in early spring. Some one will purposely drop her
kerchief at just the right moment. If you would see the glaring
look given to some sprightly lady who picks it up before the
intended one arrives, you will leave kerchiefs alone, especially
if you belong to the feminine gender. There are others who take
a great interest in a dog or child while they examine a register
or look at the thermometer, if the master or more often mistress
of said dog strikes their fancy. If perchance they find they
have stopped in New York or Boston at hotels of notable
expensiveness, then it does not take much scraping until their
acquaintance is made.
On the famous board walk may be seen girls who were sixteen some
twenty years ago. They remind you of the man who has an old or
repainted Ford who advertises his machine not as old but
reconditioned. There are women riding in wheel chairs, being
pushed along by colored men. They see, not the magnificent
reaches of the vast ocean or the wild breakers that come rolling
in upon the beach, but ever anon caress the poodle they have
with them or notice the wart on the nose of a passer-by in the
place of his charming manners. Perhaps the poodles are taken to
the sea beach for their health but their vitality surely could
never become so low as that of their mistresses.
These very people may have toiled most of the summer so they
could feign riches by taking a few rides in the wheel chair.
There are idle poor as well as idle rich and both should receive
no commendation for not trying to better their lowly lot.
