Shoddy Aristocracy

Those who wntched tbesurface of our 'sooiety" duriug the progresa of the late civil war, were wout to make themselves mad or merry over the muiden rush iuto social eminence of new mi'limiaireH. The oíd oaistocracy of wealth triud to distinguish itsoif from these parvenu of Plutus, these muHhrooms of Mammon, y fizing oq ihem the nicknaine of tbe aristocracy of shoddy, refusing to be softened by the glint of its satin or the dazzle of ita diamonds. Fasliion, as the superoilious custodinn of munners and civilizution, lifted its eye glass to survey these bold intruders from unknnwo dep'hs in the sociul seale, and pronounced them barbarie, though in broadoloth, tud savage, though o filks. It is well, jerhaps, to receive with cautioa this verdict of ciandyism ; for of all adepta in mpertiueoce the most accomplished are nominal professors of pohtencsa. We all originally oüme from the woods; it s hard to eradioate from any of us the old taste for the tattoo and the war laint ; and the moment money gets into ur pookets, it somehow or another )reaks out in ornamenta on our persons, without always giving refincment to our manners. Henee the prodigies of vulgar ostentation which accompanied and ollowed the horrors of our battle-fields, and the fleroe scrumble for wuulth whicb threw into stronger contrast the sacrifices of our patriotism. The larger portion of this iiüw wealth, however, bas been the produotion of individual genius and enterprise ; md has not only more khan offset the waste of war, but it kut plied war with one of her two main Binews of "ron and gold." The true shoddy wealth is that wbioh has been aoquired by dishonest praotices and rookless speculutions, and whioh, though it has traosferred money from one individual to another, and generally from the honest man to the trickster, has uot added a dollar to the wealth of the nation. Thé actors in eomc of these sooalled "eoterprises" briug to mimi the anecdote oí a man who professed his iut un tion to go West and opeo a jeweler's shop. "What is your oapital ?" he was asked. "A orow bar," was hls reply ; "can't I open a jeweler"s shop with that ?" The last ten years have been fertile in esamples ot this burglary oalling itself business. - From the Atlantic Montuly for March.