The Vanity Trap: Seattle’s 1876 Warning on Materialism
While the city scrambled to build its future, one observer warned that an 'aristocracy of display' was hollowing out the pioneer soul.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The true lover of display has gone in for the fashionable. The lady is no longer a lady if her gifts and manners are not that of an aristocrat. Taste has gone in instead of lighting the eyes; it consumes the integrity of the heart. A taste that withers, it can afford to wait for honors. Its means for its gratification must be secured. The true lover may be long-suffering, but a taste, a madness, then money—all must be had by the scale of morality.
Great are the evils which result from the love of strong drink. Would we clearly follow the claims of humanity, we should discover that in the power to injure society, the thirst for ardent spirits is not more pernicious than the love for elegant furniture and what are called the 'fountains' in the fashionable ton. It is provable that the 'aristocracy' of former times—a defaulter and a slave—injured the world profoundly. The love of display would drag the soul and mind into ruin, having no restraint in full rigor except vanity. At last, this is true: that intemperance is a known—a confessed—evil, and we have learned to be on guard, whereas, this passion for display is a half-concealed enemy, hiding behind such saints as Taste and Beauty. When high style comes in at the door, reason flies out of the window.
“When high style comes in at the door, reason flies out of the window.”
Writing from the boomtown era of 1876, this editorial observes the tension between civic integrity and the 'barbarian love of display.' It echoes today's Seattle, where the race for architectural and economic status often overshadows the 'soul' of the neighborhood and the basic needs of its residents.
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