The instant millionaires became known in France as Mississippians. It was a slur, like calling someone reality-television famous, or new-money rich, or simply tacky, vulgar, and plain. One writer described them on the prowl in Paris: “the age of Roman corruption; furniture of gold and silver, dazzling jewels, precious odors, fountains of perfumed water, fruits from both continents, monstrous fish, marvelous automatons, half-naked courtesans.”
