The Potiphar Papers by George William Curtis
page 4 of 158 (02%)
page 4 of 158 (02%)
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Reverend and Dear Sir, Your very obedient, humble servant, THE EDITOR. NEW YORK, _December_, 1853. I. "OUR BEST SOCIETY." If gilt were only gold, or sugar-candy common sense, what a fine thing our society would be! If to lavish money upon _objets de vertu_, to wear the most costly dresses, and always to have them cut in the height of the fashion; to build houses thirty feet broad, as if they were palaces; to furnish them with all the luxurious devices of Parisian genius; to give superb banquets; at which your guests laugh, and which make you miserable; to drive a fine carriage and ape the European liveries, and crests, and coats-of-arms; to resent the friendly advances of your baker's wife, and the lady of your butcher, (you being yourself a cobbler's daughter); to talk much of the "old families" and of your aristocratic foreign friends; to despise labour; |
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