… fellow-citizens in that distant manner, which is peculiar to ignorant and barbarous nations. They flock into cities; love to receive and communicate knowledge; to show their wit or their breeding; their taste in conversation or living, in … a saloon’, 13 adorned by paintings, and [wa]s brimming with the desire to appear ‘genteel’. Mr. Huckaback’s ambitions, love of luxury, and desire to socialize in a fashion well above his position, annoy the observer and author of the piece … that such excesses could only lead to ruin. The eighteenth-century luxury debate was multi-faceted. Even those who loved the new commodities, were keen to criticize others for overspending or misunderstanding the principles of taste. In …