to see the walls of
some elegant mansion disfigured with frescoes, which, though executed at
an enormous cost, are utterly without merit or taste. Again one sees
dozens of paintings, bought for works of the old masters, lining the
walls of the richest mansions of the city, which are the merest daubs,
and the works of the most unscrupulous Bohemians. Not long since, a
collection of paintings was offered for sale in New York, the owner being
dead. They had been collected at great expense, and were the pride of
their former owner. With a few exceptions they were wretched copies, and
in the whole lot, over five hundred in number, there were not six genuine
"old masters," or "masters" of any age.

Entertainments are given in the most costly style. From ten to twenty
thousand dollars are spent in a single evening in this way. At a
fashionable party from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars' worth of
champagne is consumed, besides other wines and liquors. Breakfasts are
given at a cost of from one to three thousand dollars; suppers at a still
higher cost. This represents the expense to the host of the
entertainment; but does not cover the cost of the toilettes to be
provided for the family, which make up several thousand dollars more.

Suppers or dinners are favorite entertainments, and the outlay required
for them is oftentimes very heavy. The host frequently provides nothing
but viands imported from foreign lands. Sets of china of great cost, or
of silver equally expensive, or even of gold, are displayed
ostentatiously. Sometimes the supper-room is entirely refitted in red,
blue, or gold, everything, even the lights and flowers, being of one
color, in order that the affair may be known as Mrs. A---'s red, blue, or
gold supper. Some of the most extravagant entertainers will place at the
side of each cover an exquisite bouquet inside of which is a costly
present of jewelry.

All this reckless expenditure in the midst of so much sorrow and
suffering in the great city! "The bitter cold of winter," says the
Manager of the 'Children's Aid Society,' in his appeal for help, "and the
freezing storms have come upon thousands of the poor children of this
city, unprepared. They are sleeping in boxes, or skulking in doorways,
or shivering in cellars without proper clothing, or shoes, and but
half-fed. Many come bare-footed through the snow to our industrial
schools. Children have been known to fall fainting on the floor of