nting the tens of thousands of aspirants and
imitators all over the city; nor in a host of other cities, each with
thousands of women who had nothing to do save to ape the ways of the
Metropolis. The mind could not realize the volume of this deluge of
destruction--it was a thing which stunned the senses, and thundered in
one's ears like Niagara.

The meaning of it all did not stop with the people who poured it forth;
its effects were to be traced through the whole country. There were
hordes of tradesmen and manufacturers who supplied what Society bought,
and whose study it was to induce people to buy as much as possible. And
so they devised what were called "fashions"--little eccentricities of
cut and material, which made everything go out of date quickly. There
had once been two seasons, but now there were four; and through window
displays and millions of advertisements the public was lured into the
trap. The "yellow" journals would give whole pages to describing "What
the 400 are wearing"; there were magazines with many millions of
readers, which existed for nothing save to propagate these ideas. And
everywhere, in all classes of Society, men and women were starving
their minds and hearts, and straining their energies to follow this
phantom of fashion; the masses were kept poor because of it, and the
youth and hope of the world was betrayed by it. In country villages
poor farmers' wives were trimming their bonnets over to be "stylish";
and servant-girls in the cities were wearing imitation sealskins, and
shop-clerks and sempstresses selling themselves into brothels for the
sake of ribbons and gilt jewellery.

It was the instinct of decoration, perverted by the money-lust. In the
Metropolis the sole test of excellence was money, and the possession of
money was the proof of power; and every natural desire of men and women
had been tainted by this influence. The love of beauty, the impulse to
hospitality, the joys of music and dancing and love--all these things
had become simply means to the demonstration of money-power! The men
were busy making more money--but their idle women had nothing in life
save this mad race in display. So it had come about that the woman who
could consume wealth most conspicuously--who was the most effective
instrument for the destroying of the labour and the lives of other
people--this was the woman who was most applauded and most noticed.

The most appalling fact about Society was this utter