The average American boy has more paraphernalia around him than a whole
Eskimo community. The utensils of kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and
coal cellar make a list that would have staggered the most luxurious
potentate of five hundred years ago. The increase in the impedimenta of
life only marks a stage. We are like the Indian who comes into town with
all his money and buys everything he sees. There is no adequate
realization of the large proportion of the labour and material of
industry that is used in furnishing the world with its trumpery and
trinkets, which are made only to be sold, and are bought merely to be
owned--that perform no service in the world and are at last mere rubbish
as at first they were mere waste. Humanity is advancing out of its
trinket-making stage, and industry is coming down to meet the world's
needs, and thus we may expect further advancement toward that life which
many now see, but which the present "good enough" stage hinders our
attaining.
And we are growing out of this worship of material possessions.
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