St. Paul daily globe., 1885-12-16
ONE WAY OF ECONOMIzING.
A Swell Tells How he Saves by Going
Into Society.
Advantages of Club Connections
Summer Invitations.
Dinners for Nothing Five Times a
Week.

house?" said young man well known in
New York society, repeating question
which had been put to him by friend.
Because find it economical"
''How so?"
Because by going into society I manage
to have my acquaintances pay large share
of my living expenses"
I'm hard cash?"
''No; nor in soft cash either. Let me eX-
plain. l can say without eXaggeratiOn
that during the season, say from October to
Lent, and from Lent until society people
leave town for the summer, l rarely have to
pay for my dinner. A light breakfast and
an inexpensive lunch down town are the
only meals l am usually obliged to pay for.
You will understand this when l say that
during the social season l am asked to dinner
six times week On an average. l can al
ways, therefore, depend on free dinners at
least five times week.
More frequently than that, I should
think, if you get six invitations week."
suggested his friend.
mo. confound it; because sometimes I
have two invitations for the same evening.
That usually cuts me out of one Of the six
dinners Pm invited to. It's a great shame,
but it's one of those eXigencies you have to
put up with if you're making about so per
cent. of your living out OF society,""
do you get enough at your dinners to be
able to scrimp yourself at your breakfasts
and lunches?"
Il can't be said to scrimp myself because
[ couldn't eat more even il l wanted to.
You see, l nearly always have some party
or ball on hand after the dinners. At these
balls and parties awlays take alate supper.
A fellow doesn't care for heavy breakfast
when he's had supper late the night be-
fore. have coffee machine in my room
and have couple of rolls left for me with
the janitor of the house. 1 make myself
a cup OF coffee, and this with the rolls con-
stitutes my breakfast. couldn't eat more
because l have very little appetite in the
morning. At lunch l am pretty hungry, at
take a light lunch because don't want
to spoil my appetite for dinner. When
tat of the land and the cream of the vintage
care to spoil your chances of enjoying it.
Did you ever read Bulwer's lament over a
lost appetite? He mourns it as the one
irretrievable loss which may mar your life.
An opportunity disregarded may turn up
again, money swallowed up in speculation
may come back on turn of luck, and so on,
but a lost appetite is lost forever. believe
in that. Therefore l nurse my appetite
tenderly, unless l know that the dinner
am going to wont be AL"
''Then your swell friends don't always
give Al dinners?"
MY dear fellow, dinner giving is an art
which few people understand. In many
houses the arrangement of a dinner is left
entirely to the cook. If the people have
good taste, they know enough to have an
artist in the kitchen. But there are people
who have money and very little taste. They
get imposed on and pay large sums to cooks
who are not worth half their salaries. The
most frequent mistakes are made with the
wines. just think of having claret with
your Blue Points or Little Necks! Shock
ing, isn't it? Yet mistakes like that are
constantly made"
II suppose when you get invitations for
the same evening to a dinner you know will
be Al and another you know will be only
AZ. you always accept the former?"
THE bother of it is the invitation for the
latter may have come in earlier than that
for the former and may have been accepted.
All, my dear fellow, there are some bitter
disappointments in this lifeH'
when you get an invitation can't you
wait before accepting it long enough to give
yourself chance of accepting a better
one?"
No; can't afford to run any risks
But how do you manage in summer
when the society people are in the country
and no dinner invitations are floating
around?"
s'Well, that is rather an expensive season
for me, but I make up somewhat duriug my
two weeks vacation. l always have an in
vitation for Newport. Lenox or yachting
cruise, and during that fortnight l am at no
expense whatever. If 1 only didn't have to
work for my $1,000, and that sum were a
sort of annuity, l could live all summer for
nothing. Why, know many men of leisure
who spend the entire summer by invitation
at their friends houses or on their yachts.
That's pretty cheap living, isn't it?''
1T certainly is" replied the speakers
friend, 'but not a way, should think, in
which man of self-respect would care to
live.''
ssMy dear fellow, don't think my life's a
pleasant one 1 don't 60 to dinners and
parties because enjoy them. Many and
many time I'd like to spend the evening
quietly at home. But can't afford. Pm
obliged to 60 into society for economy's
sake"
''But why, if you 60 into society. do you
belong to swell club? Isn't that great
expense?"
Not nearly as great as the advantages
the club offers. In the first place, when I'm
not invited out to dinner, especially in sum-
mer, I can always get good dinner at low
rates at the club. But that is not the chief
advantage. The facility of getting credit
with your tailor, haberdasher, shoemaker
and florist, which results from your cGnnec-
ton with swell club. is the chief point in
its favor"
cit doesn't enable you. though, to pay
the people from whom you get credit, does
it."
ssNo, it doesn't. But. my dear fellow,
that isn't necessary. If you are able to
make small payments on account no one will
bother you. Why, man who pays for 10
per cent. of what he buys not only lives
free from duns, but he will actually have
tradesmen running after him for custom.
OF course, in England, if a young man is
well connected, tradesmen will cl0the him
for nothing. It's an easy matter for young
Englishman of good connections to live like
millionaire on small income"
s'How does he manage it?"
sit results from the system of entailment
of estates prevalent in England. There is
ALWAYS chance (often, of course, very
remote one) of young Englisbman related
to the holder of an estate succeeding to it.
For instance, Lord Randolph Churchill will
probably succeed to the Duke of Marl-
borough's title and estate, as the dukes only