KEEPING-UP APPEARANCES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 184, 26 July 1875, Page 2

KEEPING-UP APPEARANCES.

The following very sensible article is from (he New Zealand Times of the 14th instant : — We have lately come across ia some Home paper an article on the subject of "Keeping-up Appearances." Though the caption of the article remains with sufficient distinctness in our memory, we must admit that its exact scope and direction do not. But so far aa the subject itself {loea, we are swtisfied that " Keeping- up Appearances " must be a

rantrer of tolerable local importance in Wellington. The curse of having to moke an outward appearance when penury reigns within, is nowhere felt more than in this city. And the west of it is, (hit those who feei this state of (hiotfß moat are amongst the last to acknowledge its existence. If, u not on what are called the " workingclasses " that this evil pras3es heaviest. It is on those who, earning incomes, iu many cases less, and in a few little above those of " working-men," have yet to keep up a somewhat cosily appearance, that the misery of doing so falls. And yet the so-cslled demands of society— the unalterable laws of a social code established on a false rmgia, yet \ m l plicitly obeyed— are so stringent and are so respected, that those who suffer most by their existence carry their suffering hid under their garb of show as the Spartan toy carried ihe biting fox beneath his cloak. The Ftate of things we are bringing under notice may be best apprehended by the putting of a case supposititious only in the name and indentity, but only too real as regards its similitude to hundreds ia existence. We will suppose Mr. X then, a clerk in an office, Government or otherwise, on a saUry of some one hundred and fifty or two hundred a-year. Captivated by the quivering curia of Misa Y, Mr. X made her Mra X some ten years ago, when a couple of pounds a week in addition to unlimited love, seemed more th.au sutfieient for a most comfortable existence. With confidence in these resources the couple started on their way through life and bid defiance to the dramatic axiom which says that Cupid and cold mutton do not go well together. Bearing in mind one of tho earliest commands to our first parents, the Xs have increased and muliplied, and Mr. X should be happy — he " hath his quiver full of them." But whether love has flown out of the window or not, life is now a burden to the Xs, from having to keep up appearances. If the head of the family be merely in a merchant's office or a bank, he has still his appearance to maintain. His wifa cannot go ouj without clolhea at least as good as those of other ladies of her acquaintance, and must even at home wear sorathing in which, uuder the prescribed rules, she can receive friends. The children cannot go to a more Government school, and so the talents of the younger ones lie fallow whilst those of the oldest boy and girl are being cultivated. Mr.X must have a we!l-cut suit in which to go to his office, and, aa he cannot afford cal'B, this same suit is a perfect forinent in dirty weather. The young ones have to be kept a cut above those of the bootmaker's and the greengrocer's, who play with happiness iu the gutter, and derive health from the manufacture of mud pies. These things are all necessary to existence, and yet theie aro other things aa necessnry. House rent is at a fabulous rate. Butchers' meat is high, and bread is sufficiently dear. The res angxisla domi, and the keeping up of appearances abroid, lake most of what is sweet in life out of the existence of the Xs. And if misfortune, find a sense of the highly respectable, have made Mr X a clerk in a public office, affairs are still worse. Evan if his ideas should be limited, ihe clmo cos are ten to one that those of Mrs X are net, and that she considers herself a not unimportant unit in that pyramid of agglomerated atoms o/rauk, of which some one or another is the heaJ, and an infinite number of little great people form the base. A.t concert or at theatre, the best places, opera cloaks and dress ccats, are indispensable, and tr e going suppsrless to bed is a' sacrifice to the keeping up of appearances. A cheaper part of the house, and a good meal, with a glass of beer, would be" aa offence against the rules of society that would eutail its owu punishment. Appearances of a more elevated character than those required in the case of the bauk or merchant cleik are required out of doorsjn the present instance, and in doors, in consequeuce, a more difficult strife is appareut. The results of this state of affairs are obvious. It is not a combat with the world, it is a combat with all that is false — with everything that is a sham iu the world. As a result, the business and practical part of the world declines to assist the combatant, and too often the losolvont Court, comes to his relief. This is the last penalty for having "kept up appearances "