THE REIGN OF GILT THE REIGN OF GILT BY DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS [Illustration] New York JAMES POTT & CO. 1905 Copyright, 1905, by JAMES POTT & CO. ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL, LONDON First Impression, September, 1905 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I--PLUTOCRACY CHAPTER PAGE I WE ARE NOT ALL MONEY-CRAZED 1 II THE MANIA FOR GILT 20 III PLUTOCRACY AT HOME 32 IV YOUTH AMONG THE MONEY-MANIACS 50 V CASTE-COMPELLERS 72 VI PAUPER-MAKING 91 VII THE MADE-OVER WHITE HOUSE 105 VIII AND EUROPE LAUGHS 122 PART II--DEMOCRACY IX “WE, THE PEOPLE” 141 X THE COMPELLER OF EQUALITY 159 XI DEMOCRACY’S DYNAMO 183 XII A NATION OF DREAMERS 202 XIII NOT GENEROSITY, BUT JUSTICE 210 XIV THE INEVITABLE IDEAL 226 XV OUR ALLIES FROM ABROAD 239 XVI THE REAL AMERICAN WOMAN 253 XVII AS TO SUCCESS 274 XVIII THE MAN OF TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW 288 PART I.--PLUTOCRACY CHAPTER I WE ARE NOT ALL MONEY-CRAZED The eminent Bishop of the Episcopalian diocese of New York has spent practically his whole life among people of wealth and fashion and their associates. He has made some brief excursions, but his social relations, his intimacies have been altogether with what Parton calls “the triumphant classes.” He knows the plutocracy; his diocese lies in its stronghold, includes many of its most conspicuous and aggressive leaders both in making and spending money. There can be no question of his qualification to speak authoritatively of it, of its mode of living and thinking. He has said: “Hear a group of young girls whose fresh youth one would think ought, in the matter of their most tender and sacred affection, to be as free from sordid instinct as from the taint of a godless cynicism. You will find that they have their price, and are not to be had without it any more than a Circassian slave in the market of Bagdad.” Again: “If the first comers to these shores were to come back to-day and see the houses, the dress and the manners of their descendants, they would think themselves in London in the time of Charles, or in Versailles in the time of the Louises.”