pleasuredom

— He looked at the card twice; and was ashamed to think that he was actually tempted to stick it on the chimney-piece; but he thought how contemptible this would be, and even took the trouble to throw it into the fire. And now what cheer? A small note and a woman's hand-writing—more palpitations of the heart! Better by far live in the wilderness, beware of pleasuredom, and seek a "world of glass." But dry wood will burn. What another of the elect! Even so, poor daughter of sin and shame! She once had reigned as queen of hearts. What filthy kennels the clearest streams are sometimes turned to!

— Fellow members of the Bohemian Club, august sanctuary of San Francisco tradition, most of them shared a mellow view of architecture and were damned if they would kill themselves advancing the modern cause in new materials and organic form. New York City's 1939 Fair already had a lien on the World of Tomorrow, Chairman Kelham and crew therefore plumped for a pleasuredom on "Treasure Island," an imaginative, quasi-Oriental 'Never-Never-Land'. Conceivably, nothing could have been worse. Fortunately, the Fair architects had taste in using their natural site […]