Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-03-12
DlAa.Nos AND pEsTIgygIoN :.

Mrs. Astor, the wife of the hundred.
millionaire Of New York, appeared at
party which she gave at her Fifth
avenue residence one evening last week
IN style which would justify any re
porter in saying that she .litera,,,
bluzed with diamonds On each Of
her shoulders she had four stars. n.e
size of silver half dollars, made of 1ia-
monds. Her hair was set very thickly
with diamonds, and her head seemed
ahame with tn en-. There was dia
mond bandeau upon her brow. She
had diamond earrings, and a diamond
necklace of magnificent proportions
Upon the two sides of her chest We're
Wo circles, Of diamonds, about the size
Of the palm of the hand. From them
depended lines and curves of diamonds
reaching to her waist, round which she
wore diamond girdle On the skirts
Of her dress in front we're two LARGE
peacocks, wrought of lines of diamond.
There we've rosettes of diamonds on
her slippers. There were diamonds,
large or small, but in every variety OF
form, all over her dress and person,
wherever they could be artisticallv
placed. She presented an extraordina-
~ aud dazzling spectacle as she moved
languidly through the dance among her
friends One Of the ladies present. a
connolsscur In precious stones; who
kept cool enough to take practical Oh
servations, says the diamonds she wore
could not have cost less than million
dollars, and must have presented her
husbands income for at least a quarter
| OF year. This same lady who is IA
mlliar with court life III Europe, SAYS
the largest collection Of diamonds IN
possession of any European empress or
queen belongs to the German Empress,
but She adds that even Augusta her.
self could not make diamond show
which would begin to compare with
that made by Mrs Astor on Thursday
evening Of last week. In these hard
Tunes the Astcrs are occasionally liber-
al i'll their benefactions. For instance.
there ''as banquet for twenty four
given at thu Aston Mansion The other
day, and at each lady's plate there was
q gift for her Of q costly bon 6oumiere,
exqnisitely wrought with prescious
stones, and about the size Of an ordina.
ry snuff box; and each lady was also
presented with boquet, gotten up in
fashion not to be described. The New
York Times has for some months past
been trying to make fuss over the
tact that Astor manages to evade the
payment of large proportion of the
taxes on his vast property by method
which is known as the vacation of as
sessments, $" According to the Times
this system has been reg ularly practiced
by the richest men in New York.
On the evening iii which the diamond
display here described was made i'll the
Fifth Avenue mansion the starving
masses Ill the Wretched quarters of the
city were swarming around some two
OF three hundred soup houses and char
ity places, while between eight and
nine thousand homeless men and women
were huddled for the night in station
houses, or still more miserable free re-
sorts, and not few tried to keep warm
by crawling into ash barrels or sink
ing into area ways. The money Of the
Astors is their own, and The safferings
OF these miserable wretches are their
OWL Ciacja. Commercial