One saw the meaning of this madness most clearly in the young men of
Society. Some were killing themselves and other people in automobile
races at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Some went in for
auto-boats, mere shells of things, shaped like a knife-blade, that tore
through the water at forty miles an hour. Some would hire professional
pugilists to knock them out; others would get up dog-fights and
bear-fights, and boxing matches with kangaroos. Montague was taken to
the home of one young man who had given his life to hunting wild game
in every corner of the globe, and would travel round the world for a
new species to add to his museum of trophies. He had heard that Baron
Rothschild had offered a thousand pounds for a “bongo,” a huge
grass-eating animal, which no white man had ever seen; and he had taken
a year’s trip into the interior, with a train of a hundred and thirty
natives, and had brought out the heads of forty different species,
including a bongo—which the Baron did not get! He met another who had
helped to organize a balloon club, and two twenty-four-hour trips in
the clouds. (This, by the way, was the latest sport—at Tuxedo they had
races between balloons and automobiles; and Montague met one young lady
who boasted that she had been up five times.) There was another young
millionaire who sat and patiently taught Sunday School, in the presence
of a host of reporters; there was another who set up a chain of
newspapers all over the country and made war upon his class. There were
others who went in for settlement work and Russian revolutionists—there
were even some who called themselves Socialists! Montague thought that
this was the strangest fad of all; and when he met one of these young
men at an afternoon tea, he gazed at him with wonder and
perplexity—thinking of the man he had heard ranting on the
street-corner.
This was the “second generation.” Appalling as it was to think of,
there was a _third_ growing up, and getting ready to take the stage.
And with wealth accumulating faster than ever, who could guess what
they might do? There were still in Society a few men and women who had
earned their money, and had some idea of the toil and suffering that it
stood for; but when the third generation had taken possession, these
would all be dead or forgotten, and there would no longer be any link
to connect them with reality!
In the light of this thought one was moved to watch the children of the
rich. Some of these had inherited scores of millions of dollars while
they were still in the cradle; now and then one of them would be
presented with a million-dollar house for a birthday gift. When such a
baby was born, the newspapers would give pages to describing its
_layette_, with baby dresses at a hundred dollars each, and lace
handkerchiefs at five dollars, and dressing-sets with tiny gold brushes
and powder-boxes; one might see a picture of the precious object in a
“Moses basket,” covered with rare and wonderful Valenciennes lace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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