Conspicuous waste.Is it envy? If he had fun with his money through the pleasures of mistresses, race horses, public bequests, fine art, play actresses, first folios of Shakespeare could we think more in that these disbursements had “character?” In part it is just snobbery to be against the infamy of spurious democratic conduct.
(see link at end)…Throughout the twentieth century, however, there were those who contributed to Houston’s reputation as the “city of wealth.” Few so colorfully projected the image as “Silver Dollar Jim,” an attorney, oil man, cattle rancher and eccentric.
Proclivities towards invidious comparisons and social status based on a packing order and the notion of taste and distinction within the Veblen framework is tossed into the scrapheap with James Marion West Jr. click image for source…
“Silver Dollar Jim” West was born on September 26, 1903 in San Antonio, Texas to Jesses Dudlin and James Marion West, Sr. When West was two years old, his father moved the family to Houston and later made a fortune in cattle ranching and in the lumber industry. Young Jim West …
“Silver Dollar Jim” typified the spirit of the so called “eccentric Texas Millionaire,” if anyone did. He tipped only with silver dollars–often 20 or 25 at a time. For his own amusement he would toss a handful of them on the floor of a restaurant and watch while waitresses scrambled for them. To entertain guests at swimming parties, “Silver Dollar Jim would drop a number of coins into the pool to observe other guest diving for them….
—To Heath and Potter, the story of capitalism since the 60s is the story of business absorbing so much from the so-called counterculture of that decade and after, and vice versa, that the two effectively merged. By the early 21st century, the counterculture’s governing ideas of rebelliousness and “cool” have become the “central ideology” of consumerism. Wherever you find capitalism at its most vigorous – as in the marketing of sportswear and pop music – a “rebel sell” philosophy is at work.—click image for source…
If “Diamond” Jim Brady had thirty-five Japanese houseboys and a gold plated bicycle belonging to Lillian Russell, or August Belmont and his twenty million in expenses on ostentatious luxury for his New York home, where is the difference ultimately in grading man’s examples of eccentricity and tastelessness. West left an estate of almost 100 million, including $300,000 in silver dollars.
…His standard tip for doormen at the Shamrock Hotel, whenever they delivered one of his 40 Cadillac’s to the front door, was three silver dollars. When the color blue took his fancy, he had all his personal and business cars so painted.
His eccentricity was not limited to silver dollars nor to the color blue. West loved radio. He owned a radio station and had as many as eight antennae on innumerable personal cars. He was very interested in law enforcement and was especially supportive of the Houston Police Department. West assisted the force in various ways: he placed his powerful radio receiver at the disposal of the Houston Police; he attended police conferences and was known to cruise with their patrols and held a Texas Ranger’s Commission. West died on December 18, 1957 at the age of 54. Read More:http://02db39d.netsolhost.com/citizens/houstonians/history8bb.htm
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