The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-09
SOME SOCIAL QUEENS.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor. Mrs. Hamilton Fish,
and Mrs. Belmont-A Wealthy Trio.

Special to the indianapolis Journal.
New YORK, May 8--New York has always
been fortunate In the possession of certain
women at the head of society who have kept
a perfect prestige of responsibility.
One Of these is Mrs. j. j. Astor, very re-
markable woman for intellectual attachments
and for conscientious fidelity to duty Mrs.
Aston is very generous hostess, caring more
for intellect and character than for mere fash
ionable position, although she has a proper sense
of the dignity of her salon. She has always en-
tertained the distinguished visitors to New York,
las the President and his wife, the foreign min
listers and the English and French arts ocracyl
She is very good lngust and musician PLAYS
the piano like a master, speaks and writes
French German and Italian She is delicate
little woman. with very high-bred carriage and
wears her splendid diamonds as if she were the
daughter of hundred ears. Mrs Astor is de-
voted to good works, and is fond of going to
read to the patients In the Woman's Hospital
She is remarkable for her choice Of language
being somewhat scholarly, and has the oldfash-
toned manners of the old school, She is an ad-
mirable custodian of large fortune and an emf
nenty religious, good woman.
Mrs. Hamilton Fish has national reputation
as a leader Of society. Mrs. Fish is an aristo-
cratic blonde woman. with the most quiet man
ners in the world. She feels her blue blood and
| lives up to it. Yet no woman is more free from
| any vice of patronage or snobbshness. She has
| been the greatest help to her husband, who has
| always consulted her as to his political, as well
as other duties. She was everything to the
Grants during their eight years residence at the
White House. Mrs. Fish had profound
| knowledge of etiquette and the world in which
| Mrs Grant was then very deficient, and every
| disputed point was laid before her. and the
most intricate problems were all settled by Mrs.
Fish in New York, at the head of her elegant
| establishment up on the Hudson at CARR
| sons, Mrs. Fish has dispensed the liberal
| Inequalities of her home like an English
| duchess Mrs. Fish has the manners of the best
| bred people, simple, unaffected, but very digui-
| fed. No comes very near her. Sur
| rounded by her elegant thoroughbred daughters
| she is picture. Her daughter, Mrs Sidney
| Webster, is a very scholarly, superior woman.
and quietly elegant Mrs. DHauteville and Mrs.
Rogers were great beauties the former is dead,
and Mrs. Rogers live in Albany. Another daugh-
ter. very attractive, Mrs. Benjamin. the wife of
Colonel Benjamin. rarely appears in New York.
The sons are all we'll married. Nicholas Fish
married Miss Smith, Brice Hamilton Fish mar
ried lady of Troy. and Stuyvesant Fish mar
ried Miss Anton one of the most delightful OF
| ell the young married bellies Of New York. 1t is
| singular record of unblemshed prosperity,
| that of the Fish family.
| Mrs Belmont, long the queen Of fashion, is
another spotless lily of society. One of the most
beautiful of women thirty years ago she still is
| a wonder of preservation, looking like a girl of
| twenty; perfect little figure. and face as reg
uar and as placid as a summer lake, she is love-
y to look upon, and. to her credit be 1t spoken,
she has passed through long career of fashion
| able excitement and notoriety with
| out being breathed upon. Or, if
| an enemy had breathed on her fair
reputation, the breath would have faded away as
| it does on some fiawless gem. Mrs Belmont was
| always admired, but unlike tho young married
bellies of to-day, she carried herself with such
dignity that she never gave rise to even a care
less SANDER She was always leader. She has
the gift of exclusiveness, and knows but few
people. tender mother, she has suffered
deeply from the death OF lovely daughter Her
living daughter. Mrs. S. L. Rowland, is very
pretty, rather French in STYLE and an exceed.
ingly nice person, not so beautiful, perhaps, as
her beautiful mother. Mrs. Belmont, like the