New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-04-05
SOCIAL SILHOUETTES.
usrYa THE IMPRESSIONS OF MR.. MARK MAN
HAITIAN.
XIV.
THE LADY WHO Is CONSERVATIVE.


Avenue Hotel. She somehow represents position
and nothing else You never think of her as hoping
loving enduring and suffering like other people,
You ALWAYS summon her before your inner vision as
in the act of entering ballroom, or sttihg GOWN
amid the polite preliminary rustic OF dinnerparty,
or s,pping tea from diaphanous porcelain at an
afternoon reception. She has very large house
on the Avenue where she has lived for many years
She has also a husband whom should have men,
toned before the house if had not grown somehow
IN Mace MIN after it and secondary to it, But he is
50 distinctly an adjunct that l am not to blame.
Mrs. Van Tassell has her manson, her husband, her
carriages her footmen, ct cetera all being posses
sions over which she presies with distinguished
grace Mr. varck Van rassell adores her, and he
Is such shadowy, incomplete, indefinite person
that am sure his most ardent alteration could not
have occasioned her u moments Inconvenience; no
doubt ne has been of far less trouble to her judicial
superintend dent mind'than the dynasty OF buffers
who have poured wine for her guests through thirty
years of her welded life She did not at all dement,
herself by her marriage There lies the chief secret
of her supreme prestige in New-York: everything
and everybody has been tributary to her; she has
never bowed to circumstance but has always had
il approach her with a kind of saiaam, as though
il were an Oriental Ambassador and bore gilt 1t
is true. she married Van Tassel. Bat when you
Ask who she had been before this marriage you
Immediately learn that it conferred no new dignity
of merely patrician kind, since she had been
Van Tassel herself. Aud more than this. she was
mite as rich a Van Tassell her husband Nor
were they cousins; not even thus faint objection
Go their union had existed On the contrary,
though of the Same valued Knickerbocker name.
they were but distantly connected.
Ever since the first year of her marriage Mrs. van
Tassell has entertained splendidly and protusely.
But she has also entertained with most rigid care
fitness She never discusses the question OF who
Smith and Jones are but she permits you 10 form
vour own conclusions her estimate in this respect
by the fact of whether you meet one. neither, or
both of them in her drawing rooms.
She is the most absolutely swell woman in New
York; said Mrs Douglass Pranceley of her one
day. al admit that. With her slenderness, her
roseleaf complexion her graceful walk her repose,
her little si.very laugh, she makes an astonshingy
aristocratic figure. But detest her. She is such
q bigot of conservatism"
Mrs Pranceiey is not at all conservative And
could not help noticing just then las she sat in her
own cosey chocolate-and gold reception: room at my
sdel how entirely her physical traits differed from
all those which she had recently accorded 10 MIS-.
Van Tassel She was by 10 means slender, but
almost buxomlv plump; she had not roseleat com
Dlexion hut rather a peony-lIke glow and Hush;
her walk was in sense graceful: sue completely
lacked rcpose; and as for her laugh the genuine
heartiness of its peals alone excused ther dautess
Certainly Mrs Van Tassell is conservative
assented. "she could not be marked leader IN
Society IL she were other wise. Wherever the
patrcian idea hourishes, there you ind the motto.
LET things alone All thrones have been built
upon this theory. Dlsiodge IT, anu tneS posih W
Mrs pranceley looked at me fxedly with her
SPARKLING black eyes. | think it simply dreadful
she protested, athat any human being should
express so much mental and moral stagnaton as
that woman does, in oar awakened ninet I mn
this. he other day. as hear, she was asked 10
become of the lady OF the new Friday
Evening Dancing Glass. She consented provision
ally" .a.,u
oatron 7, asked with smile.
Yes. And that somebody else was your humble
servant, declared Mrs Pranceley. = She couldn't
lam as we'll born as shelf one cares for that kind
Of humbng here: we're second or third cousins on
the Fyshkille side of her family NO. II wasn't that
She objected to my advanced opinions
Is that Whist she called them T.
Eyes She didn't realize the sarcasm in that
word adyanced' as she employed it But believe
the principal horror that she laid at my door was
sympathy with female suffrage. She considers
any tendency on the part of her own sex toward its
emancipation from old bar6arc preiuiiees to be i'm
modest and vulgar. Well. readily withdrew M
hsgns actually to think and read for oneself it's
remarkable how much contempt one gets Tor these
assemblages of mere babbling. prattling snobs
But mean to have my revenge On Ayd'a van
And pray what is your revenge TO be ?" asked.
q / shall send her polite request to join certain
Woman's Rights society of which ! have lately
become member. | shall write her a really
sOgs6 yery AND M Ts
threw back her head. with gleefui explosion OF
laughter. =, ID. ,o, torr;t1s scatb;no robrke
sBahH cried my hostess q She hasn't the brains
IN write ANYTHING terrible scathing. She will
probably ignore my letter altogether Silence will
be her best refuge. she will decide. And she will
be right. Silence may be the mantle Of wisdom,
but it may also be the safeguard OF stupidity"
Mrs Van Tassell adopted the course of silence, as
Iafterward learned. But Mrs. Pranceley had made
mistake in her kinswoman She is not devoid
of brains. have reason for this statement, rs ]
hope soon to reveal In her general social attitude
there is extraordinary taste and discretion. Inc
capabty Her consistency, SO to speak. is perfect
Her individuality as a woman who represents
what is select, exclusive, palpably and keeny
unplebeian shines out clear that yon cannot for
an instant err or doubt concerning its accuracy
To be ANYTHING in the eyes OF your fellows OF sueh
vivdly positive nature that all MISUNDERSTANDING
about it Is impossible means to accomplish what Is
difficult and rare. Mrs. Van Tassell. to my think
ing, has done that. She has achieved personality
40 distinct that whether yon like dislike, approve
or dsapprove her. you can never fail to realize with
eIactitude precisely what she is. she admits o. no
opinions and she possesses the courage OF them IN
the most clean-cut way. Call her power for bal
If YOU will but she is at least that unshrinkingly
and ncisiyely. She believes herself TO be right,
and though you laid at her feet the wealth OF Ormus
and Ind you could not convert her TO any other
faith.
II "a not 30 much that she does not think or
reason Ii is that thought and reason have both
stood still with her since grlhood. All novelty OF
view regarding the great problems OF life are to her
sbomination, even blasphemy. She is a rtuaiistlc
Episcopalian. In her heart she holds all people
who are not ritualistic Episcopallans as pitiaDly
wrong She learned years ago TO worship caste,
pedigree position. In her heart she holds that all
people who omit to do this are uckless lot. she
regards radical inquiry every subject the failure
TO accept society and moral law as they are now
existent. to be dangerous foolish insensate. All
people again. who are not with her on these vital
cues tions, she holds culpably against her.
Everything has been settled in the world. aud she
placdly lifts the standard of conservatism. signify
tbat IN Ia irrpfut ablA fact.