The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-04-27
HIGH LIFE.
The Paryenu AristOcracy Of Washington
City.

! The PaTyenU ATistOcracy Of WashiDEtO h
city.
Gath writes to the New York Graphic
! The prominence given in the public
| prints to the rich wardrObes of ladies and
their relative beauty has helped to en-
courage the love of display and cOnceit
which we see coming out in the Belknap
and other cases. In former days ladies
and men in public position were pro,
! teCted by the discrimination between of
fetal and mercantile life. Twenty
years ago a family of tradesmen in the
| avenue did not intrude in official society,
and he who published the names or adj
| dresses of persons at any of the large re-
ceptions never had the opportunity to
repeat the performance. Consequently
fine clothes did not enter into the rivalry
of the court.
In our day, however, persons are intro
duced to the receptions without pre-
vious acquaintance with their host, and
it is common for women from distant
cities to visit the capital accompanied by
dozens of trunks filled with wardrObes
specially prepared for a " Washington
season."
The example of dress on the stage of n
theater on the public promenade, or in
drawing-reOm is infectious, and mere
money has come to be rated as too neces-
sary an element in good official society.
Yet what woman will be bold enough to
make the innovation Of dressing in the
plain way customary thirty years ago?
And who gives Washington women their
dresses? Husbands?
What we see in Washington is patent
alIOver the country, particularly IN cities.
In dress, however, and in the passion for
display there are gradatiOns. If you
viii select, say fifty women, in Washing
ton society, and taboo them from the
newspapers and from social consideration,
you will cut off the extravaganza.
Here, for example, is a real estate
agent, who few years ago was dealing
in swamp lots somewhere in the west.
Now his house is furnished from Paris,
Brussels and London. The carpets were
woven to fit the rooms and the mirrors
slipped through the custom house with
out expense. Here is a patent attorney
who has worked hard all his life, and sees
no other way to distinguish his wealth
but to build palace. Here Is doctor
who turned up from the MusBra country
rs hospital surgeon, and now appears
in the street only behind pair of cream
ColOred horses with a driver, and Tepresen-
ting in no feeble way death on pale
horse. Here is a retired army officer
with a y1orte-cOchcre Mansard, paviliOns,
lace curtains, and house open to let his
daughters be seen from morning till mid
night. Here is a brOther-in-law of a dig
Ditarv who, not satisfied with his relative
condition in the city of his birth, makes
an appariJiOn in Washington society with
a great house. Here is a poor German
| engineer, who has been drawing sections
| of boilers and ship-beams for thirty years,
now living behind PictOU stone. Here
Is an instrument-maker who furnishes
surveying tools for the land office, keep
! ing his family by the year IN Europe.
Here is a retired taveTn-keeper, with
| twenty bathrooms in his house, expect
| ing to be married into the first official rank.
| Here IS a little chap who used to be A
page in congress surrounded with paint
| ings, horses and Iaces. Here is an old
curb stone broker whose daughters have
! got into good society at last, and their
| house is in the West End covered with
zinc ornaments. Here Is 4 miller who
| got rich by building n patriotic momu-
/ ment, and he belongs to the gentlest set
| Of all. Here is a stOne-Cutter with a
bank, a country villa, and transformed
, town mansion, all bristling with nina
| rets and pinnacles. Here Is a claim
| agent, who came out Of the war without
| a penny. inhabiting a castle made of
! pressed-brick set in lampblack mortar
| and resting on granite piers.
The time eisapProaching when cards will
! be scanned before the lady of the house
| comes down to receive strange callers,
and when the servant at the door will
! perform the duty Of asking for invita-
| tions and resisting intruders.