In either case, the
young were quite willing to sell their persons for wealth. These
unnatural facts plainly demonstrated to what depths the human being,
will go in an endeavor to secure money, or the power derived therefrom.
In the restaurants, the most criminal extravagance was practiced by
these moneyed people, in many cases the costly viands and high-priced
wines ordered being only partly consumed, and the remainder left to be
thrown into the waste barrel. In fact, it appeared that the individual's
importance was gauged by the amount of money he could spend, and men who
no doubt in a great many cases squeezed the pennies from the poor
laboring classes through their different financial methods of
confiscation, thought nothing of spending from five to fifty dollars for
a single meal.
In short, I found the Waldoria Hotel to be a sort of a heavenly place,
infested principally by hellish beings-a welcome nest for people with
money but a very unwelcome place for persons who had none. It made
absolutely no difference how people got their money as long as they had
it.
The stone masons, iron-workers, carpenters, painters, plumbers and other
laborers who built the beautiful edifice were not allowed inside of it.
The furniture makers, carpet and tapestry weavers, interior decorators,
etc., through whose skill the hotel was made grand, were not permitted
to enjoy the magnificence of their own creation. But owing to the stupid
money system, which these laborers them selves help to keep in force,
the results of their combined efforts were either usurped by an
unproductive class fortunate enough to be born rich, or those shrewd
enough to accumulate money, such as trust managers, bankers, real estate
speculators, stock jobbers, and brokers, gamblers, burglars, money loan
swindlers, high salaried clergymen, etc.
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