THE SNOB'S CHRONICLE.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 89, 27 May 1882, Page 169

THE SNOB'S CHRONICLE.

BY A SNOB,

No. 6. — Mercantile Snobs

" Virtus post mammos " (Virtue after money.) In our last paper on " Some Feminine Snobs," we indicated our intention of writing our next on the snobs who make their living by buying and selling — traders or merchants., This is a very considerable class in colonial towns. In fact they usually arrogate to themselves'' a sort of preemptive right to be considered the society — that is, the bon ton of colonial cities. This assumption alone, and we challenge and defy contradiction, ensures their title to the appellation of snobs. Indeed one of the most characteristic features of Mercantile Snobs, individually and as a class, is their offensive patronage of those who are not of their own class, i.e., their inferiors in the art of buying and selling, or those who may be in some way dependent upon' them for their means of living. They live, move, and have their being in making money. It is the breath of their nostrils, and nothing less than- this, viz., a money qualification, can give anyone a claim to consideration in their eyes,, except it may be some great official snob, but even then the knowledge that the official snob is " well in " enhances him beyond measure, in their estimation. Their idea is as Butler puts it — " For what is worth in anything But so much money as 'twill bring," When a large proportion of society is permeated with this spirit, it is obvious that an improvement in manners, or an elevation of tone is very unlikely. And that it is so,few will deny. Of colonial cities, perhaps Dunedin is the worst ; but we must place our dearly beloved Auckland second in rank in this kind of snobbery. Wellington suffers rather more severely from official snobbery than mercantile, while Christchurch revels m a snobbery compounded of squatteric and cleric. He must be a very considerable mercantile personage indeed, or he must have a very pretty or well-educated wife, to be admitted into good society in the City of. the Plains. Nelson may be fairly admitted to rank amongst colonial towns as the city of snobs, -par excellence. These are capable of being divided broadly into two classes — those who have resided there (say) ten years, and those who have been there always. The fact is that the Nelsonians have. little else to do than cultivate snobbery, and they liave succeeded. Our experience of other colonial .towns is not unlimited, but that, such as it is, enables us to express the above opinion, which we are positive no one Avill think of "questioning.- But let us return to our mutton. The snobs of the mercantile community arc so numerous, and possess such a sameness in general features, that it is a somewhat ticklish task to give a special illustration. There are so many of you, oh mercantile snobs, who would, each of you, fit on the cap that we, even your superior brother snob, refrain from making any particular allusion. We will therefore, to use a Yorkshire expression, " lump you up." Now, my fraternal snobs, may I ask you on what grounds your pretensions to outshine all other sorts and conditions of snobs arc based ? No doubt you are in the habit of attributing your success in accumulating money, if you really have done so, to your own special merits. That last transaction of yours in gum, by which you cleared a profit of 50 per cent., was unmistakeably the consequence of your own shrewdness. But any man of common sense will tell you that the causes of your success are largely outside your own abilities. But suppose they were not, on the exercise of what particular faculty or faculties does this depend. Doesn't it strike you that some portion of your excessive profit really belonged to someone else ? Have you any just cause to be proud of yourself ? "Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest," we know is your motto, as it is the principle of the market. But just reflect what this amounts to. Does success in making money always, supposing ' you really have made it, give you any justification to assume airs, and arrogate an importance out of all proportion to your merits ? Why should you snub the persons employed by you so unmercifully ? Because you can do it with impunity. Is that so ? They know you are a poor contemptible snob, if you were worth a million. But perhaps you are one of those, now very common in colonial cities, who have originally risen from small beginnings. We know some of you who had very small beginnings indeed. You have paid twenty shillings in the pound, as you occasionally remark, , and have just reason to be proud . of yourself, so you think ; you are generally spoken of as an enterprising and energetic man, of whom the Colony ought to be proud, and so forth; you have reaped your reward ; you commenced by wheelling a barrow, and now you ride in your < own carriage, and you are very grand and pompous. But why should you look down so much* on others who have their life's battle to fight? Why, speak of that poor devil and this poor devil, snub your servants, grudge their wages, and make the waiters run after you at your Clvb — for of course you belong to a club ? A little reflection might impress upon you that, in order to save the money which enabled you to emerge from obscurity into the mercantile world, you were guilty of . innumerable meannesses from which you are notyet quite f ree. Your success subsequently

has' been, chiefly due to the, fact that, you were totally ' unscrupulous, keeping always of pourse within the rule of the market, being what is called a sharp business man. You had no scruple in selling for ten pounds what cost you five, because your customer didn't know any better. Well, sir, if you found your title to consideration and deference upon the possession of such faculties, and the success which you imagine to have followed upon their exercise, you are a v ery, very poor sort of a snob, and you have dearly earned all you have got. In olden times, before the modern ideas of commercial morality obtained so wide an acceptation, when men acted upon other than commercial principles, they gave the following attributes to Hermes or Mercury — he was the god of boundaries, the prince of messengers or ambassadors, the patron of trade, of cheating, and of thieves. This combination of attributes has of course no significance in our own days. The significance, however, which this view has to you is that in placing a high estimate upon what is of a very doubtful value,you are assisting the extension of a very offensive kind of snobbery. Tour wives and your daughters are of necessity similarly affected, for " Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare, And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair." We have already remarked that it is this false worship, the adoration of this demon-god, which is at the root of the most prevalent kinds of snobbery, breaking out in fresh places every day, but it is amongst mercantile snobs that the most fully developed type of the species is to ,be found. Mercantile Snobs, for the most part, knowing or understanding little else than the quality of spunyarn, or the flavour of whisky, a little book-keep-ing, the state of the market, etc., have by their undue estimation of the practical, 'as they call it, been the true obstructives to a system of higher education, and a better culture, while their influence on colonial society has been of a like kind, undeniably pernicious. Oh ! mercantile snobs of these colonies, spend your money as fast as you choose, but spend it in harmless snobberies, such as works of art, but, above all, don't promote and encourage flunkeyism.