St. Paul daily globe., 1885-05-31
An Account Of Society in the Modern
Babylon" How We Live
Now"
The Fair Yankee and Her Numerous
Social 0onquests---English Titles
Seek Her.
Four Grades of Feminine Rank In
London---AlI Eminently Proper
and Respectable.
The Stage-Struck Metropolis Likes
Actors and Actresses and Gladly
Receives Them.

really to be Edmund ateS, who has written
the book Society in London" which is
now SO much talked of there. enlivens his
work with incidents and sketches which
show how people live now in the great
vanity fair. The writer gives precedence
to royalty. Crowned womanhOod, it ap-
pears, is no exception to the general law OF
womanhood, and kindly though her heart
may be, the queen has the capriciouSness OF
her exalted station and rank. Lady Ely
has no more disagreeable duty to fulfill than
that not seldom imposed upon her of telling
some lady of the court that her presence
has become burdensOme to her majesty and
that she must go.
The domestic routine of the court proved
trifie monOtOnous to the Princess Beatrice.
1t was necessary to do something, SO four
years ago the princess determined to change
her state and privately Ebethrothed herself
to the handsome scion of Prussian royalty.
The secret was well kept. When the
princess breathed it into the ears of her
royal mother little storm broke. 1t did
not last long, but while it lasted it was
acute. Everything is now arranged. The
queen has given her consent, and though
the match is not liked by any of the royal
family, it is acQuiesced in.
is prOdigal of advice on great matters and
small. Whether it be a conjugal quarrel or
questionable marriage, the pattern of a
coat, the color of frock, the prince, If he is
interested in those whom the matters con-
Germ, volunteers his advice. He attaches
great Importance to the ordinances OF re-
ligion, attends church regularly and criti-
ciSes the sermon, and has a quick eye for
nh, To
devotion to decorum love of mystery. 1t
pleases him to be selected as the exclusive
confdante of any friends of either sex in
whom he takes a special interest.
Some people rise suddenly to social fame
One of the first persons to whom the stranger
is likely to be presented in London society
is lady famous for her beauty, whose ca
reer has been, to say the least, interesting
A few years ago she was unknown in Lon
don. But she went to the theater by her
self. In the next stall to her sat noble
man, the Marquis of -, accompanied
by his wife. His keen eye was immedi-
ately arrested by the loveliness of his neigh
bor He offered her his play bill or his opera
glass, entered into conversation with her,
discovered that her husband was yachting
in the Polar seas, and that her father was.
say colonial prelate. The beauteous
stranger was staying at hotel
and had intended rejOining her
husband, I think at Spitzbergen,
theneXtday. The kindly and courteous peer
expressed hope that as she was in the cap
itol she would stay to see more Of its sOci-
ETY.. In eighteen hours afterward the marquis
and his wife had called upon her. -Four
and twenty hours later she was their guest,
and before the week was out she was a
parsonage in London society.
1.-THE FAIR YANKEE"
Americans have won prominent place in
the social economy of the English capital.
The ''fair Yankee" has no sooner made a
conquest, and led an English aristocrat to
the altar, than she commences Immediately
to consider what she can do for her COM
patriots with the leverage in her hands.
She has sisters or cousins as beautiful as
herself, and she feels all the pride of con-
quest in inducing English lovers to bend
the knee to them and pass under the Trans
atlantic yoke. British father and mother
may protest. but the young Englishman, if
there is anything which renders
him at all eligible, when once heis enmeshed
in the tolls of
LA BELLE AMERICAINE,
never, should perhaps rather say, showing
any desire to do so.
Much may be said in favor of the Amer
lean lady, who is now one of the reigning
princesses of English society. She is often
pretty, never mercenary. She has for the
most part some wealth herself, and prefers
infinitely to wealth in her husband, posi-
tion wit, intellect. She is also seldom
lacking in humor and in conventional skill.
Altogether, she is an acquisition to society,
though her independence, her impatience of
restraints, and especially her incessant eff
forts to advance by matrimonial alliances
or otherwise the interests of her country
women may sometimes prove fertile in mis-
chief
One of the reasons why the fair Ameri
cans of London society are so much in re-
quest and are so conspicuous at such august
occasions as ambassadors dinners is that
they are for the most part accomplished
llngulSts The greater portion of
their life has been spent on the
continent of Europe Their French,
German and italian are infinitely better
than those of the ordinary educated Eng
lish woman. Thus they can play their part
in the conversation at the most cosmopoli-
tan and panglot of feasts.
Every where in France and in Germany
politicians and diplomatists are found
welded to English wives. That, perhaps,
may be to large extent because these
wives are heiresses. English society, being
weather., has not felt in the same degree as
in France and Germany the effects of their
wealth; but it has felt in greater degree
than the society OF other capitals the effects
of their social talents, has been frightened
by their vivacity and Illuminated with their
gayety. Finally, the fair American has,
like the representatives of the Hebrew race,
been largely benefited by the approval of
royalty. The Prince of Wales is an habitual
worshipper at American shrines, and my
reader may perhaps, before the London
season of 1885 is over, have the opportunity
of meeting him at dinner party, every
lady present at which comes from the great
republic of the west.
METROPOLITAN LION HUNTERS.
Society in London seeks to indulge it's
passion for novelty in host of ways. For
instance, there is a lady we'll known in Lon
don society who lives in a street between
Cavendish square and Regents park, and
who, inspired by the prevailing fashion for
novel and sensational effects, has turned her
drawing room, and at the hour of luncheon
her dining room, too, into a rendezvous
of odd people There is another lady of
the same Sort whose house is at no great
distance, who is even more devoted to Sec
ond-rate celebrities and pinchbeck beauties.
and who, next to a Radical statesman.
adores an actress with history or married
laay on whom august personages in remote
regions are reported to have dotted. She
has her admirers, at a decorous distance.
l. .Iox a all
sects, all religions. She welcomes impair
TALLY to her.roof Tories and Revolutionsts.
bishops and ballet girls-or if not exactly
ballet girls, young ladies whose faces are as
well known from their appearance on the
hl1rlesn11e eta re as from their nhotorra nhs