Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-08-22
HIGH LIFE AT NEWPORT
rey:Yal of the Manners and Gus
toms of Queen Anns's Riga.
Midnight ReSeIs Of the StOddy AristOcracy
al the Gas no Indecent and
Disgusting Behavior,

Certain puritanical and unreasonable
people are greatly exercised over recent
affair in Newport thigh life" Some of
the nobility and aristocracy of the New
port cottages met at dinner in the
Casino, and, as the custom of the aris-
tocraCy of our American renaissance,
drank more wine than was good for
them, and amused themselves by throw
ing foo AMI drink, crockery and glass
ware, out of the windows. Some ofthe
by-passers weakly objected to this
noble amusement, aud ladies whose
good clothes were spoiled by the showers
from above have actually threatened to
sue for damages. Persons who COM
plain of high dOings of this sort, and
who murmur at the damage done by
the hounds and horses of the nobility
and gentry, and who criticise the pro.
fuse OslentatlOn of the parvenuS OF
New port, forget that We are now living
IN a revival of the manners OF Queen
Anne's reign. Every body who knows
anything Of the social history of the
early part Of the eighteenth century
knows that the ariStOcracy and mob llty
of this favored land are faithfully re-
producing the social traits OF those
times, intensified and heightened as
they should be by high American
civilization.
The plutOcracy which has chosen
Newport as its fayUrite seats I'm 1oubted-
ly familiar with the pictures OF Eng
lish social life drawn by Steele, Add
son, DOfOe, AMI other writers OF Anne's
reign. What more reasonable and
natural that an aristOcTacy that has
builded for itself Queen Anne haoita-
tiOns, filled with Queen Anne furniture
and garuished with Queen Anne bric-a-
brac, should initiate the social customs
80 graphically described in the Rambler,
the Taller, the SpectOr, aud The Tale
of u Tub" 1t is to be expected that
men and women who wear Queen
Anne costumes and live in Queen
Anne cottages and villas should try
To be so very Queen Anne that
they should spend their nights
in genteel debauchery, high play,
and bOisteriOuS cOnviviauty, and
their days in yawning for
some piquant diversion. In the days
OF the good Queen whose name is a
household word in Newport, the bellies
aud beauS of London would be seen
carried home i'm sedan chairs, at early
dawn, dressed at harlequinS and column
bines, nuns and harlOtS, kings aud
chimney sweeps, saints and sinners, re-
turning from masquerade. GallantS aud
laced cOurtiers, feasting in the coffee
houses, diverted themselves by pitching
tankards and trenchers from the win
dows, emptying the contents of tureens
and beakerS upon the head OF the be-
lated passengers, or sallying forth at
times To break the heads OF link bearers
and chairmen, by way of diversion.
Historians and satiristS have we'll
nigh exhausted the resources of the
English language in their endeayors to
describe the WantOn wastefulnesS anu
extravaganza of the time, the ftp
perry, display, and ostentatiou of the
nobility and gentry of Queen Aane's
day SO faithfully reproduced by the
newly rich of our own land. They
who murmur at the mock fox hunting
the cheap imitation of every thing that
is un-American, the coarse senSuality,
and the veueering of American society,
so conspicuous in Newport today, fail
to take in the spirit of the time. His
tory does repeat itself-in fashions and
in manners rs in the larger affairs of
human life. The few people in New
York and in Newport who stands ale If
and gaze with speciesOfpious horror at
the gilded show that goes on should re-
member that now, rs in the days Of
good Queen Anne, they who have Meth.
er family pride, delicacy, nor common
sense to restrain them, and have money
in plenty, must play out their little
play, like butterflies in the sun. The
stern sensors should not be over severe
" it'll the giddy creatures. They are the
living Illustrations of the gilded age.