Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
NO GOOD CAN RESULT
From the Ideas of Society Inculcated
by the Four Hundred.
MERIT HAS BEEN LOST SIGHT OF.
The Good That Might be Accomplished With
Money Now Wasted
IN THE MAD RIVALRY FOR DISPLAY
rwnrrrrx 70, TEE DrsrArcz.1


2,0o0. 900 people. or these, ~ estimated,
minority aims to be the so-called ''leisure
class" Trade to this class is vulgar; shop
keeping is low; labor. ss in the South before
the war, is degrading. Among the "four
hundred" not only OF New York, but Of
other cities as we'll, fools flourish and
abound. Young men grow up a. dudes,
and graduate as aristocratic loafers, and
maidens fair are trained to marry for title
or for money and position.
Tennyson sings "'Tis only noble to be
good" but the -four hundred" affirm by
precept and practice that to be noble il to
trade off beauty for q name, or to buy an
English earl, a German baron, an Italian
| count or an impecunious prince with the
millions gathered BY grubbing fathers. It
is happiness enough for the dudes to wear
English clothes, to SOW wild oats and
achieve fame BY running away with ballet
girls. The unhappiness parents must feel
who have brought their daughters up to
marry money and their sons to pursue idle
ness when their plans 60 wrong and they
discover their mistake, must be bitter in
deed. unless tempered by the reflection that
by the code of society they have anyhow
done their full duty by their children.
MONEY THE OPEN SESAME.
In Europe, where the borders of so-called
society are positively defined by rank, and,
money or no money, those entitled to it are
assured Of their place; there is no trouble in
maintaining social supremacy. A duchess
Is duchess in a garret as we'll as in a pal
ace. but high position can only be held in
this country when fortified by the almighty
dollar. The Astors and the Vanderbilts
would be no more to the world than their
poor relations if they had not the prestige
| of great wealth. If the original John
Jacob had not been thrifty, industrious
peddler with some brains to speak OF, and
his wife had not been an able helpmeet,
| both as to doing her own work and helping
| him with his, it is hardly likely that the
Astors of to-day would have been at the top
| of the heap in the city of New York, or
that they would have been engaged in Q
struggle for precedence as displayed upon
| o visiting card.
What seems funny in this battle of the
| cards is that neither of the ladies engaged
have any claim to pre-eminence or fame
| upon their own account, but simply to wear
the name of the good woman of years agone,
who worked in her husbands shop, and
never dreamed OF heing a leader in society.
But while the spectacle of two women
bringing all their forces of brains and in
fuence to bear upon this intangible, in
definite something for title, makes the
world laugh; 1t gives plain token of the
barrenness of society that can be all torn up
over such trife.
AS THE WORLD SEES IT.
Men who push their way from poverty to
prominence and wealth as Abraham Lin
coin pushed his way from the backwoods
log cabin to the Presidency are en-
titled to honor. General Grant pushed
out Of his failure of farming and
and the tanning into the tented field and
won the highest honors the world can give.
Garfield pushed up from the towpath to the
White House chair. Blaine from being
| teacher of q country school has pushed his
way to be Prime Minister Of the United
States, and chief apostle Of the American
system. Stanley pushed his way up from
the rank and file to stand among kings, and
be honored by the foremost powers Of the
world. Andrew Carnegie, from the position
of a messenger boy on Pittsburg streets, has
pushed his way to fame and wealth counted
by millions. ALI these, and those like
them, possessing pluck, enterprise and
power to push, who reach the heights for
which they aim, have received the applause
of their fellow-mortals.
But when has the bray Of brass, the beat
of drums. the blare of trumpets sounded the
praises of the women who, with the same
qualities Of untiring energy and ambition,
have pushed their way from wash tubs and
kitchen drudgery into the heart of Society"
into the ranks of foreign nobility, into the
inner circle of divine distinction, where
they can sit in Queens gardens and are
made proud by smile Of royalty or Princes
favor?
ENERGY M1sD1REcTED.
These women expend their forces, not in
the sphere of business, or in the achieve
ment of high place in church or state, as do
men, but in their own limited field of $50
ciety." Here they engage in the business
of pushing themselves up and keeping others
down. In this pursuit they know the
power of money as we'll as the silver kings
and the iron kings. With enough dollars
they can buy their way into the aristocracy
as easily as q silver king can get Into Con-
gress.
These people are as good as a circus to
those who know them, especially when they
forget their ancestors and prate about the
lower closes. When they get q coat of
arms upon their carriages, couple Of
funkeys In livery to give them some style,
and have been to "Yoorup" a half dozen
times or 50, and have . couple of maids and
16 trunks, they are quite proud of them
selves, and assume all the airs of superiority
which blue blood, and an ancestry of free
hooters, robbers and royal rapscullions of
Norman birth implies. When high-toned
Southerners take pride in being descendants
Of the first families, the student of history
thinks back over the record and remembers
that the prisons of Europe were opened to
people the colonies, and that the scalawags
were gotten rid of in the Old World by being
sent over TO the Western wilds.
THE cLIoUEs ARE EvERYwHKRE.
This assumption of superiority % eonsti-
tuting the best society by virtue Of wealth
or high birth, 10 set up by silly people In
every city and village, and watering place
and summer resort Cliques or sets are
formed by the sordid standard which 80
many women with small brains and niggard
souls are perpetually struggling to main
tain. Social position can be easily reached
by costly dressing, grand houses and splen-
did entertainments. Modest merit, moderate
means, plain dressing have not ghost Of a
show in the society whose measure Of man
kind is money. The moneyed aristocrats are
opposed to poor people in their pews. These
can be frozen out OF the church on earth by
raising the pew rents, but how it is to be
managed in heaven, only heaven knows.
"We don't want that Miss B in our set"
said naughty Miss A at Chautauqua the
other day.
"weli, why not" was asked.
"Oh, well, you know her father was o
carpenter and we must draw . line"
"Well, your grandfather was cobbler.
Where are you going to draw the line?"
was the quick reply.
A teacher, dressnaker, sewing girl. or