The motto of their noisy and obtrusive life seemed to be, "Get rich
as quickly and with as little trouble as possible, and make as much
as possible of your riches when you have secured them, even by
illegitimate means." So the splendid houses rose up in an overloaded
gaudy irregular style of architecture, and the smart carriages with
india-rubber tires rolled by, yielding soft and soothing riding to
their occupants.
Berlin, the sober economical town, the home of honorable families,
extolled for respectability almost to affectation, now learned the
disorderly ways of noisy cafes, the luxury of champagne suppers, in
over-decorated restaurants, became intimately acquainted with the
theaters--gaining doubtful introductions to expensive mistresses.
Mere upstarts set the fashion in dress, in extravagance, and all who
would be elegant, followed, leading the way to barbaric vices. The
old-established inhabitants were many of them weak or silly enough
to try to outdo the newcomers, and degraded the quiet dignity of
their patriarchal manner of life by speculations on the Stock
Exchange. The intelligent middle classes, whose eyes and ears were
filled with this bluster of the gold-orgy, found that their former
way of living had now grown uncomfortable, their houses were too
small, their bread too dry, their beer too common and their views of
life began to climb upward in a measure which, whether they were
willing or equal in talent to it, forced from them harder work and
more dogged perseverance.
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