THE MODERN CURSE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2659, 27 July 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE MODERN CURSE.

Loiui Wolsf.ly (says the Pall Mall Gazette,) amongst many doubtful remarks in his recent deliverances, has said one indisputably true thing. "A mad and restless longing for wealth, iind for the luxury wealth can purchase, is," he says, " one of the chiefest curses of modern England." This is perfectly true. The haste to be rich which is characteristic of the present day undermines the sobriety and prosperity of the nation at a hundred different points. It is at the root of half the evils of industrial competition ; and it is at the root also of much of the craze for gambling, 'lhere it of courso_ a fascination in gambling, as in all waiting on chance, which soon makes it become a passion, and leads men to pursue it for its own sake alone. But unquestionably the motive which leads many men— and especially meu in respectable professions to take to the first plunge is the restless craving to be rich. Everyone nowadays wishes to " rise" in the world. If a man is a storekeeper ho is no longer content to live over his shop ; his consuming de.-ire if to save largely and quickly enough to be able to move into a genteel villa, Ihe inhabitants of the genteel villas iu their turn look forward to the " desirable mansions" as their earthly paradises, and will make any sacrifice, and sacrifice any scruple, to attain their goal, Poor men strive to be rich, and rich men strive to be richer. The developments of modern commerce precisely lit iu with w'h.it Lord Wolsely c ills the 11 worship of the now Baa!." Opportunities for great strokes,' for '■ lucky speculations," for " daring ventures," have enormously increased, and men can —and do—rnaue in a day what tlieir grandfathers would have been content to make in a working lifetime. A vast amount of what passes as business is really little better than a game of baccarat.