SHODDY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 247, 18 October 1877, Page 4

SHODDY.

[From "Saunders's News Letter."] Tbe great question of the day is where to get things good. People are continually addressing one another anxiously, snd saying : — " Where do you get your tea, your wine, your tobacco, your furniture, your gloves, your socks, your umbrellas?" As though every street is not crowded with shops, every newspaper crammed with advertisements, and traders only too anxious to open accounts and deliver parcels. Still, the fact remains that materJamilias is never so happy as when she can obtain the direction of a new shop, where she can get what she admired so much last week at a friend's house; and gentlemen are the samea bout their cigars or their tailors. What is the meaning of this distrust in the public mind ? Is it not the terrible prevalence or shoddinesa in the commercial world that provokes this uneasy deßire for change on the part of the customer ? Sometimes the buyer gets an article that only looks well, but lasts well and then how proud he is of his good luck ! How pleased he is to glorify the article to his admiring and half • incredulous friends! But what ia the more common case ? A hat lasts thrae months at the utmost. Time was when a good hat lasted a year. That waa the time, we suppose wheu all hatters were mad. What with bad felt and uew shapes, hatters now ought never to be anything but the sanest in the community. Boots, again, are liable to the vice of shoddinees, Wkere do you get your boots ? It is a query ot every-day occurence, prompted, no doubt, by mis lite, bad leather aud a tendency to run down at the.heeis. Shoddinesa is tbe vice of the age — a vico that betokens ibe degeneracy as well ns the increasing dishonesty of the times. It is a short sighted policy, moreover, for thu tradeemau who lias a good name and a fair repututiou will always advance steadily to prosperity. The sboddy man makes his money by fits nnd stuns, by bankrupt stocks or .Brummagem wares, and though attractive enough to a certain ciass who love the cheap und naaty, he can

never hope for the patronage which lasts a lifetime. But of all the shoddy preparations which provoke the greatest indignation in our own Irish climate, the umbrella is perhaps the shoddiest. A companion which ought to last till it is stolen, and which therefore, pro bono publico, and for the greatest happiness of the greatest number, ought to be unrivalled for strength, symmetry, and endurance has degenerated into a mere flimsy pretence, the sport of the elements aud the ridicule of the holder; Why umbrellas are ever stolen nowadays is a matter of surprise to us. Doubtless dishonesty brings its own reward. But enough -of such articles. Ab uno disce omnes, Let us come to food and drink and sea what terrible dangers shoddiness affords to other coats besides those on our backs. What about the silent spirit, aod the champagne concocted of a delicate preparation of parraffio, fusil oil, and other luxuries from the light-hearted druggist ? What about the coffee aud chicory, tbe tea and the ha w thorn ? The Havana box full of British cigars? All shoddy. The matutinal milk suffers terribly from one of our moat admirable institutions, theVartry waterworks. Fines are of no avail. Aqua pura is cheap and there are doubtless many earnest traders whose ono deep sorrow is that the Vartry can never be adulterated and sold at a profit. Cli6er up, ye votaries of the great god Shoddy; the time may come when tbe pump will dispense riches to many. But even at night, when shoddly shops are shut and we sit down in the calm seclusion of our study to enjoy half an hour with the best authors, we are rudely awakened to a sense of the unworthiness of our fellow men. The gaspipes give one .of their longest gulps, and tbe lights dwindles to tbe luraiaosity of a Child's patent nightjlamp. Presently there is heard a sound as of a small hurricane, and the air rushes up to the burner with a rapidity worthy of a puffing-hol^ and presently there is total darkness. Then we sit Btill and indulge in railings and revilings of shoddy gas, and wonder why as steadily as the bills go up the lights go dowu. It is a matter of national regret that we are so infected with this terrible disease. Steam has produced the be6t and the worst materials and articles, and tbe worst have tbe superiority in number. A house can be stocked with shoddy at ball the price of sterling goods. Tho consequences aro that there is double the amount of worthlessness in the market. Take, for instances, the porcelain trade, and compare the productions now with those of twenty-five years ago. A tou of trash is sold for a pound of good taste. Good things are made only for the great and wealthy, the multitude, nay, the substantial well-to-do middle class, earning their money hardly, but willing to speud it handsomely, must put up with the shoddy. Art itself ia declining into tbe same groove, and is becoming v vehicle for paltry knick-knacks, giving false, meretricious ideas of the beautiful. The wants of tbe nation Been to be growing steadily every year, aud the supply more than keeps pace with lhe demand. ButitisasupplyofDead Sea apples, pretty enough to look at, but dust aod ashes within. The commodities, like the race-horses of the time, are all speed and no staying power. They shine resplendent to-day, and are eclipsed in utter shabh'mess and decay to-morrow.