The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-22
MILLIONS FOR PLEASURE.
Crnsuses Sitting in Gorgeous Boxes
While BegGars Cry for Bread
IIn,..,,.I il, Pnsf.nla EInhn

Ho,curd in Boston Globe.
An evening paper, in announcing sundry
social events expected in the near future,
tells a pretty story WEIGH in these days Of
| the rich growing richer and the poor grow
ing poorer, and discomfort ramifying i'll the
different classes from one end of the country
to the other, is peculiarly pertinent. Mr..
Abbey, having billed Josef Holman, the
child pianist. for a matinee on Saturday in
the Metropolitan Opera House, declined to
allow him to play in Mrs. Nauderbilt's par
lor at a musicale to be given there on Satur-
day afternoon.
"But why not" asked the lady
Because it would involve rious pecll-
MARY loss to me if l did," replied the i'm
preSSarlO.
How muchr rejoined she
well, in the first place, the rent of the
house is $1,000 and my prospective profits
are 81 800, making a total of $1,000"
ooh, said the fair madame, with a CO.
quettiSh toss of her pretty head, that's
| nothing. | will pay that with pleasure
The conseQuu nce is that there will be no
matinee on Saturday, and the great public
Will be disappointed, but Mrs. Vanderbilt
and her friends will be delighted, and all
for the modest expenditure OF s., 500
Easy come, easy SO.
The Globe will lie read tomorrow in more
than 100000 families, and of that vast num-
Der at least elght-tenths would feel that the
certainty of an annual income of ~, 800 was
a bliss, comfort, a Consola ion, toward
which they dare not turn their eyes, even in
| tie most bewi!dering ecstacies of unbiased
hope | won't be misunderstood as
Extensively criticising the right of Mrs.
Vanderbilt to spend $500 or S25,0 900 on a
plate of soup If she wishes to DO SO. |
simply call attention to the fact as indica-
tive of a class of expenditure to which GER
tain liIes of New York social life are be-
coming accustomed. Men who in other
years estimated an income of 600 year
as something to be desired, now wonder
how they manage to scrape through life on
$4,000 or $4,000 a year.
A glance around the tiers in the Metro
| polltan Opera House, reveals men worth
one, five, ten, TWEEN y, eighty, a hundred
| million dollars. Sitting in my chosen seat
| in the orchestra stalls studied the ingenu-
GUS face of Cornelius Vanderbilt on Mon
| day night as he delighted the occupants of
a box ear the stage. He was dressed la
mode, going to the extent which is adopted
| by the ultra tashionables here of pearl
gloves with black binding. He has a small
| face and head. His hair curls tightly and
in thick masses, and from either ear de-
| ponds a suggestion of a whisker. He bears
| himself modestly, is always good-natured,
and in public is invariably jolly, with a
contented smile, not the least suggestive OF
smirk, upon his really intelligent and
| thoughtful face.
One hundred and twenty millions of dol
| lars at the very lowest is the estimate of his
| wealth.
| On either side of him and III the tier
| above him sat men with their vast accumu-
! latiOns of wealth, to whom the expenditure
of few thousands every year for an opera
| box, which is occupied but a few weeks, Is
nothing; to whom S25, GOO. and from that
humble figure to $500, 000 needed for the
running of a yacht seems but trifiing.
Their wives clad in silks and laces, when
clad at all, and covered with diamonds and
precious stones Within earshot, were it
not for the vast overshadowing harmonies
of that magnificent orchestra, rise the cries
of beggars for bread and shiverers for
clothes