THERE is little wonder that the common people are poor, and that for every one who climbs from mediocrity into the ranks of recognized wealth, a score fall into poverty. There is little wonder that socialism is making its way through the rank and file of the world’s population, and that anarchy is putting on a bolder front every year. The crowned heads and the aristocracy of wealth fear the increase of these elements, and well they may. That the cause of poverty on the one hand lies largely in extravagance on the other hand, may be discerned in such exhibits as the following from the London Tit-Bits:— In Windsor Castle kitchen, King Edward VII. has copper and silver utensils worth something like £9,000, while on fittings alone George II. expended the sum of £10,000 in order to satisfy his cook. But the cream of kitchens is owned by the Czar of Russia, who, soon after his accession to the throne, spent £80,000 in remodeling and refurbishing his kitchen at the winter palace, St. Petersburg. All the cooking utensils are of solid silver, while the spice boxes are of solid gold. His chief cook draws a salary of £8,000 per annum, and he has six subordinates in receipt of salaries ranging between £1,000 and £1,500—to say nothing of hundreds of supernumeraries. Altogether the czar’s kitchen expenses amount to £120,000 yearly. The Shah of Persia’s kitchen is the most valuable in the world, if not the most expensive. The shah could, if he wished, realize more than a million pounds sterling on the sale of the contents of his kitchen. His food is cooked in gold-lined pots, and he eats his dinner off solid gold plates, incrusted with precious stones of priceless value. His jeweled knives and forks are said to be worth thousands of pounds, while his marvelous ‘state’ soup tureen is worth half a dozen large fortunes. These almost fabulous expenditures are indeed astonishing when we reflect that they represent only the kitchen paraphernalia of one great establishment for each of the two first-mentioned rulers, who maintain various places of abode, and then reflect that everything else connected with their support and entertainment is in like proportion. When we take into consideration the enormous cost of officialdom and aristocracy, together with the added expense of alcoholism, it seems hardly possible that there could be anything else than poverty and want among the masses.