The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-10
WHAT a DAUGHTER COSTS.


moneyed aristocracy, one Of the great
est problems presented to rich parents
is the marrying of their daughters. 10
the father it is as much concern as his
affairs in stocks, and to the mother it is
a matter of daily care. The daughter IS
no sooner born than her future becomes
a subject for reflection. IN few weeks
it is known whether she will be plain
or pretty. If she is plain that means
the expenditure of a good-sized fortune
to take her after years to the bridal
altar. If she is pretty the parents are
jubilant, for her future can pretty well
take care of itself
Wealthy New York parents make it
point of surrounding their daughters
with all the form and luxury that fall
to the lot OF princess They are not
willing when their daughter goes to
boarding school that she live in a neat,
plain room like the conventional quar-
ters assigned to young ladies in olden
times in English boarding schools and
French pensions, but they must sur
round her with every display that the
modern institution viii tolerate. Her
room is boudoir OF Oriental luxury.
Entering it you sink to the aukles in
Persian, Smyrna and every desert ption
of Turkish rugs In colors Tyre could
not rival; the walls are hung with
beautiful tapestries with chaste Dianas
upon them; there is divan with great
eider-down pillows and made savagely
luxurious by tiger skin thrown care
lessly across it to give the gilded maiden
rest when she comes wearied from the
street or the classroom. There are
Turkish or Chinese slippers cool and
soft to her feet; Oriental wrappers of
the softest and cost}iest stutfs and the
lovelieSt of colors;a dressing case studded
with everything dear to girls heart,
not the least of which are perfumes
costing from fifty cents an ounce TO one
dollar a drop. In her wardrobe are
her hand-em broidered night dresses of
silk as soft as down and beautifully de-
signed; and her white iron bed, with
brass knobs, is made so inviting with
its Marseilles or quilted India silk
coverlid in summer, its elder-down
spreads In winter the hanging cherub
above and the hangings, with their
beautiful hand-painted designs, that it
might tempt ST. Agnes herself to come
and lie there. But what money it all
costs!
When she reaches her eighteenth year
she graduates from the boarding-school
and is, perhaps, sent to a finishing
school, where she becomes a parlor
boarder surrounded with her usual lux
ury, and gets finishing touches on de-
pertinent. All this, it must be borne in
mind, is a preparation for the matri-
monial market. Then my young lady
goes home and the real expenses com.
mence.
If she is a very plain girl she must
have every accomplishment that money
can give her. She must learn to draw
and to paint on silk and china, for"Ruro-
pean princesses have lately made this
fashionable. A select dancing master
is engaged to give her private lessons,
for that is supposed to make her more
graceful in her movements.
Every rich mans daughter in New
York learns to ride, and if it is the in
tention to send her to England she must
learn to ride cross country, so she joins
a private hunt club, and follows the
hounds on the trail of the anise seed.
Then she must have an expert French
teacher one day in the week for CONVEX
sation and German teacher for the
same purpose another day. The knowl-
edge of the music she acquired at the
boarding-schOol is not considered suffi-
cient, so she is at once put under the
care of pale, mild gentleman, with
fierce hair and many diplomas, who
brings Wagner into her life: to which
is added the offices of some melancholy
and extinct Italian nobleman, who
teaches her the guitar. 1t is also con-
sidered an accomplishment to be able
To fence, so to the fencing master she
goes, and she varies this exercise by
attending at gymnasium, where she
develops her muscles. OF course, if
she is pretty all this is not necessary.
She makes many other calls on her
fathers pocketbook. She must for
mally come out. She must now have
dresses made by Worth or Felix and pay
as high as FIVE hundred dollars for the
making Of one of these. If no family
jewels have descended to her, she must
have diamonds pearls and other pre-
cious stones and her equipment must
compare with girls already out. When
bills for the ball are paid. then comes
the allowance for pin money, out OF
which she has to assist several fashion
able charities. She appears at grand
opera at least one evening in the week,
at theater another, and she can sit only
in box; then come flowers, bonbons
and the latest perfumes. The manicure
comes regularly to beautify her hands
and nails, and the chiropodist to tend
her feet. Her maid she has always with
her; a companion if she has no sisters,
and frequently paid chaperone at the
telephone waiting TO be called.
Although it may seem strange, it is
true, that the richer New Yorker Is,
the more wealth does he look for IN the
man who is to marry his daughter. He
and his wife make it point to keep the
daughter as far as possible from making
the acquaintance of young men who are
not rich. They will not permit her to
visit houses where she is likely to make
such acquaintance, and they constant
ly impress upon her that an admirer
without money is altogether below her
station and not 10 be Greamt of. Unless
she is romantic she comes TO look upon
young men as articles Of merchandise
and falls entirely into line with her
parents.-N. Y. World