Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-10-08


Very rich people have demands on
their income as regular and unnter-
mittent as poor people. IL Is always as
your day, SO shall your strength be.
The servants have TO be paid as regu-
larly In rich house as in poor one.
The rich man Is charged for the same
meat several times rs much as the plain
man pays. l 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 i'm or
der to save the terrible expense which
the gentleman was mourning in q great
lawsuit. He had TO entertain lawyers
and politicians unnumbered. Time
passed along. his suit was gained, and
found he was paying one dollar q
pound for beef. It seemed TO me to be
good beef, but hardly as good as paid
twenty-five cents for when | went nv
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 n fine house must
not open poor bottle OF wine in ii.
Wines are graded, like diamonds. and
the moment you leave the plain and or
binary you 60 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 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 il 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 a delicate way
of making you feel that you are an ass
ut the very best, but that you are a
barbarian il 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 buyer 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 very fine
harpy. ] have seen brokers here not
very much found in public places. whose
pedigrecs were very good. Sometimes
your broker will be the son of some dead
rebel General, keeps his mustache ele-
gantly trimmed, and can entertain the
ladies superbly and show them how TO
dine When the rich man drops into
his office il is no mere brute that is to
be dealt with. A distingue broker has
q delicate way of looking at you when
YOU give him small order, and q sense
of dignity when you give him big one,
but hardly ever fails to impress you
You become afraid in his presence tc
make any small turn in stocks, and YET
you can not escape him, for it is hi.
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, rs if it were a grea,
privilege, to subscription list for q
party, ball or series of sociables
These things will cost 800 per head fol
the necessary features; and then there
will be little side subscriptions of some.
thing for this or that miss-for this OF
that leader or steward.
There is often the parasite architect
floating around, intimating that you
will never be quito appreciated until
| you construct some more or reform
something. l have observed the i'm.
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 neighborbood 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, il you are rich
any one half a day in the course of your
existence. The horses are always
breaking something which has to bc
paid.--M Y. Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer