The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-08-25
Interesting Facts Abost Upper Ton
dom.
Correspondent Missouri Republican,
NEW YoRtS IuIy 96 1871

Correspondent Missouri Republican,
NEW YORK, July 26, 1871.
ABOVE SOCIETY.
New York is not, SO much place {
high life as of high living. The pee
pie who move in the highest circle
are not the people who live high. Tn
great families whose ancient name ha
gwen them a semi-noble station in so
clety, the Astors, Livingstons, &c.
i've well, of course, but quietly-some
what like q well regulated family Ii
Europe. They have been aecustomet
- wealth and its luxuries all thei
II. es; what should they care to show
OF before the world 80.
Mrs. A. 7. Stewart when she goes t
saratoga. dresses very plainly. 81,
can afford to do so; society will faHf
round her nevertheless. Were she
less rich, she would have to dress more
! Just as VIM. II. Astor would have tC
live in grander style were his wealth
not so fabulous. As soon as YOU lhaEs
from fc,,StiTS ia commands. You can defy 1t
and IT'S snams: YOU need not dress
well; need not sport fast horses; build
palatial stables give large parties, II
you have ten millions of dollars. Ii
you have sixty, you may even be pc
nurious, mean, shabby-the genteel
world will make you nevertheless its
finest courtesy and forgive you for the
sake Of youI money.
on socIETY'S LEVEL.
Most of the people in New York who
l. -fEA ornA nnnf f.
ford 20 do what Mrs. Stewart and Mr.
Astor do. They have to drink cham
pagne to excess, give large parties,
to live on Fifth avenue, and spend a
fortune year. The lot is not very
unpleasant one, and they take to this
mode of life very well. They can live
high with as much grace as the dukes
aud earls of England, and with = good
deal more OStentatiOn. Americans
are born aristocratic in spite OF the
constitution and the declaration that
all men are equal. The tastes for the
grand, sumptuOus, magnificent, are
innate with US; every boy, they say,
is candidate for the presidency. We
know better. Every boy wants 10
make money a. fast as he can. Money
can buy the best of everything the
earth affords, and Americans all want
the best. They want the most sump-
tuOUs apartments, the biggest bills of
fare in their hotels, the cOstliest clothes,
the fastest horses in the world, and
they get them. 1t is ridiculous to hear
people who have never been in Eu-
rope talk about the
sPLENDORs OF TIE NOBILITY.
They talk as if there was the splen-
dor, and here the Republican plain
hess, while the reverse IS the case. The
nobility of Europe live much more
plainly than for instance our wealthy
New Workers. 1t is Unborn in them
Just as much rs an American with his
delicate mould is born an exquisite.
An English dinner winds up with
bread and cheese; an American with
pie. The Emperor and the Empress
Of France have in all their apartments
in the Tuileries out one bathroom an
American has one attached to every
room. How plainly were those impe-
rial apartments furnished? ? In the
times of the Commune New York
geutleman-like many other Ameri-
caus-went through them, wondering
at their plainness, and comparing
them with his own nome on Fifth avo-
nue., where there are apartments much
more maguifiCenly furnished than
the drawiug-rOOms Of Queen Victoria
and Emperor William. Americans
want the biggest bills Of fare, and no
hotel keeper has so large one as our
best houses in New York. They want
10 dress better than any other people
in the world-which they do-and
they want TO have the fastest horses
and the quickest yachts, and as they
have to pay for all these things they
spend money like dukes. Our New
York dukes speui more money. In
the BTevoOrt House, where the Lords
Of London ana New York can be seen
together, all the walters say that the
fare of Prince Arthur and the English
nobility in general is much more plan
that that of the American guest. They
are plaiLer people, and much easier to
please, they say, than the New York
mobility, who, it is admitted at the
same time, spend also more money
than the bloOds from England. These
English nOblemeu we see here are not
Of 50 delicate cast as our Americans.
They don't live 50 much on cake, and
don't depend so much on their carria-
ge5. Prince Arthur used to walk, when
hc was here, every morning from
BreyoOrt House to the Central Park.
What New Yorker would ever do that.
Not one in a thousand. The thug is
unheard of here. After breakfast an
American sits and reads his paper,
while the EIglishman goes to take his
two or three hours walk. The one has
dyspepsia, the other red checks.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY SPENT
Here in luxury is fabulous. Every
one seems to be vielng with the other
in extravaganza. Every one wants to
have the biggest house, the best dressed
girls in society, the fastest span Of
horses, the grandeSt establishment.
Incredible As it seems, there must be
more than 1000 families in this city
who keep up an establishment in fash
ionable style au1 spend at least $4,000
a wear. Ten thousand families-a
hundred millions year. The figures
will seem impossible, but here is lucu-
lent proof. The number Oh Fifth ave-
nue exceed 80. Those on Madison
avenue exceed $40. There are between
Fourteenth and Fifty-ninth streets
alone forty-fve side streets that will
fairly average one hundred and fifty
houses between Sixth avenue and
Fourth avenue, the boundary Of fash
ion. These alone would give 1000,
and with Fifth and Madison avenues
| over 5000. And now we have to In
l. 4 IDarl-
the streets beyond Fifty-ninth street,
and the other fashionable localities
scattered over the city-and the num-
Der of four-story brown-stone front
houses will easily reach 1900, which
would leave our calculation far too low.
| Some of the men who keep up these
establishments are poor. There is
many a poor fellow on q salary Of per-
| haps s., 900 a year-fOr a man with
! $1,000 year is poor in New York
who lives in q nice brOWn-stOne front
house Oh fashionable side street. He
! has to keep at the very least four ser
wants; a cook, a scullery-maid, who
| helps her, and may do at the same
| time, the laundry work, an upstairs
| girl, and-if he has children (poor peo-
pie mostly do have children "a nurse
lie pays 50, 900 rent for the house, and
after he has paid his servants, has
nothing to live on. Nevertheless, il
costs him $4,000 to live. How can he
do 1t? He does do it, no matter if he
can or not People live recklessly il
New York, and in the vain struggle OF
emulation they go far beyond theil
means. They starve themselves, as
Italian mobiles do, to keep up grand
state before the world. Your read
ers will scarcely believe it, that here in
many a family the food is scanty be.
cause OF the carriage being elegant
that many lady of Fifth avenue ha:
nothing to wear at home because she
gives parties in " hich she likes to b'
gorge0usly dressed. There is nothing
Of the morbid eXtfaYagance of New