The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-12-06
Parasites Who Prey on Mllllonafres.

Very rich people have demands on
their income as regular and uninter-
mittent as poor people. It is always as
your day, so shall your strength be.
The servants have to be paid as regu-
larly in rich house as in a poor one.
The rich man is charged for the same
meat several times as much as the plain
man pays. once knew man here
over period of years, and when first
met him his wife cooked the food for
the entire family and the visitors in or
der to save the terrible expense which
the gentleman was incurring in great
lawsuit. He had to entertain lawyers
and politicians unnumbered. Time
passed along, his suit was gained, and
found he was paying one dollar a
pound for beef. 1t seemed to me to be
good beef, but hardly as good as I paid
twenty-five cents for when went N.Y.
self to the butcher. He had steward
to buy all this, and the stewards slice
is the best thing in the beef.
Expenses mount enormously in pro-
portion as men go upward in the social
scale. A man with fine house must
not open poor bottle of wine in it.
Wines are graded, like diamonds, and
the moment you leave the plain and or
dinary you go into the realms of the in
finite. Fine brands of Burgundy,
Rhine, or even sherry, will run up into
fifty dollars case. The making of
presents in very rich houses is a great
feature. Many of these people you see
riding around in the morning hours are
merely choosing presents for each other.
You have the eldest son of Duke at
the house, with his wife, and there is
no walking to be done. and what is
given must be of the highest There
are not many men in New York who
can afford to entertain on any general
scale, but give dinner with the great
est care, and make it an event.
Besides, the harpies who follow rich
men here innumerable. Some of these
harpies are the best bred persons you
can find, often above the breeding of
the rich family. One of them is the
picture-buyer. He has delicate way
of making you feel that you are an ass
at the very best, but that you are a
barbarian if you do not buy according
to his taste. A little thing of picture,
when you are poor man, may cost you
$50 to 800. When you become rich
every picture that goes into your house,
without much corresponding improve
ment in quality. will go up into the
thousands. 1t has been said that the
picture-buyerf for the Vanderbilts abroad
must have made enough money to re-
tire on for the rest of his days. Yet he
was the only person connected with
those pictures who probably knew any
thing about their merits. He had the
true enjoyment of selecting the pictures
and approaching them, and that he could
sell to nobody.
Your broker can also be a very fine
harpy. I have seen brokers here not
very much found in public places, whose
pedigrees were very good. Sometimes
your broker viii be the son of some dead
rebel General, keeps his mustaehe ele-
gantly trimmed, and can entertain the
ladies superbly and show them how to
dine. When the rich man drops into
his office it is no mere brute that is to
be dealt with. A distingue broker has
a delicate way of looking at you when
you give him a small order, and sense
of dignity when you give him a big one,
but hardly ever fails to impress you.
You become afraid in his presence to
make any small turn in stocks, and yet
you can not escape him, for it is his
business to cultivate you and make you
spend money in his office.
Then there is the social parasite, al
ways hanging around the rich man
and letting him in, as if it were a great
privilege, to q subscription list for a
party, ball or a series of sociables.
These things will cost $100p head for
the necessary features; and then there
win be little side subscriptions of some
thing for this or that miss-for this or
that leader or steward.
There is often the parasite architect
floating around, intimating that You
viii never be quite appreciated until
you construct some more or reform
something. / have observed the inn
provements on these Vanderbilt houses
since they were put up alone to have
been something prodigious. After they
got the big pictures into old Mr.. Van
derbilt's house it was found that there
was no place to live, so houses had to
be constructed in the neighborhood for
the incoming sons-in-law, and the con-
servatory had to be remodeled for hab-
itation.
The horse parasite has q hundred
heads on him. He lives at your own
stable, at the general exchange, upon
the road where you drive, over in Jer-
sey where he has stock farm, and you
can never dodge him, if you are rich,
any one half day in the course of your
existence. The horses are always
breaking something which has to be
paid.-N 7. Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer.
-Philadelphia boasts Of young lady
who plays the piano with her feet. Tho
society for the prevention of cruelty to