The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-07-23
.PATHOS OF RICHES.
WHY SOME WEALTHY PERSONS EN-
JOY LITTLE COMFORT.

Admired-Her Charities Arc Not Apprs~
ciated, and She IL Grumbled Mt by All.
A poor relation Of one OF the richest fam
plies In America once said TO me, 1T Is
astonishing how little comfort Mrs. So
and SO gets out OF her enormolO~ealth."
'fWhat do you meant" was my smiling
answer.
And then I listened TO certain amusing
explanatory details. Mrs. So-and-So was o
great leader of fashion. She loved dress,
as all such women do, and, as, am afraid,
a mighty majority of her obscurer sisters
likewise. But she never secured the faint
est pleasure from this keen, II ~pardonablo,
passion. She went abroad nearly every
year and had q talk with Worth In the
[Rue de In Paix. Worth would send her
certain gowns, and they were almost al
ways just what she wanted. The price
was not to be considered. To consider 10
would have been r~idiculous-she was so
exceptionally rich. Even II she had felt
that Worth vas cheating her she would
have refrained from scolding him or argu-
ling with him, much less from suing him,
for IL ID should transpire that she had
made any sort of protest against his bill
she would be certain that sarcastic gossip
would at once pounce upon her. How
avaricious, f" IL would cry, "are these mul-
timillionaires! To think that a woman
of Mrs. So-and-So's huge wealth should
actually stoop to quarrel about q dress
makers bill"
Then as for the gowns themselves.
Granted that they are superb, exquisite.
brilliantly artistic, everybody takes them
Jas O matter of course. She goes to 20
|triarohs' or an assembly ball clad In ono
lof them and has 1t sprinkled over with
diamonds Of the whitest water. Peoplo
look at her, admire her. but nobody pre-
Isumes to say, You are robed like .
queen" Most women love graceful oom-
lpliments On their attire, It's neat fit, Its
lbecominRness and all that. But poor rich
Mrs. So-and-So never gets q compliment.
Everybody IL afraid to tell her that she v
magpif1ntly CARRIED.
At the same ball Mrs. Smith or Mrs.
Jones may appear In q plainish frook and
10 necklace Of rather ordinary pearls, about
which her stock broker husband has
Igrowled q great deal before permitting her
Ito purchase, and At least half q dozen men
i'm the room have told her before supper
Itime how lovely the adornmont II and how
lt becomes her and how they observed 10 the
instant she dawned upon their sight.
but Mrs. S0-and-6o Il never made tho TO
|oipisnt Of any such genial speeches az
these. She can coruscate In her oorselot
lof rubies, radiate In her ~revieres Of dia-
Imonds, and nobody will presume to breathe
lher a word. Of graduation. Everybody
feels that IL would be a kind of imperti-
lnence to mention these visible signs Of
her colossal income.
But Mrs. So-and-So secretly pines 81
all this taciturn dsferenos. In her heart
she would much prefer to BIS admired for
the glory of her costumes and her jewels,
especially by her own sex- Women al
ways like to have other women praise their
apparel, knowing well that these are the
true critics Of such delicate yet potent do.
tails. From mon they demand another
species of eulogy. II is always dangerous
for n man to talk to . m fatteringly
about her dress. Before he knows 10 al
lhe wishes particularly to please her) hi
has swamped himself in some sort OF state.
lment that rouses either her ridioule, he's
surprise or both.
In matters Of charity IL II tho samc a.
in matters of social import. Everything
that Mrs. So and So gives to the poor ID
pronounced inadequate, me~asor-even pitt
ably mean. Hosts Of applicants arc for.
ever besieging her, and 1t Is quite credita-
bile THAT she gives with q generous hand
from Monday till Saturday, from morn.
ing till night. But unless b endows q
hospital or builds an asylum or POUNDS q
public library no ope pays heed to her
tbenefcence. When she signs her name to a
check for 81, 900, everybody land especially
those persons whose institutions profit
by IT'D carnot refrain from regrets and
Isneers that it was not 80, 900. II II had
been 1000, they would have sighed snd
lgrumbled because 10 was not 80, 900. Hun.
dreds of begging letters come to hor every
week. She cannot answer them all per.
|sonally, aud some It would be undignifed
for her to notice with q single line. She
employs Q secretary, and those who are
favored with responses through this spis-
toJary medium soowl and frown ut her
arrogance"
When Christmas comes, enormities OF
hiberality are expected of her. She dispenses
with lavish hand, but no n Is satisfied
from the lowly scullion In her kitchen 10
the naughty head butler above stairs. They
have all expected more, " and they have
kaii Convinced themselves that they ought
certainly to receive more" They do not
dare to grumblo, Out sho sees IN thelr
faces that they would grumble II they
dared.
Then there are the poor relations. In
evitably the opulent Mrs. So-and-So has
bier horde Of poor rotations. II she should
give each Of them . million, they would
not DO satisflod, and she has gradually
grown to realize this pregnant truth. She
learns Of their dissatisfsctions and their
tngratitudes not directly from any n OF
thom, but from what they bsbble and
gossip to her about the dissatisfaction
and ingratitudes Of one another.
As she Q 10 II . terrible yet undenia-
bio fact that she feels her future life
watched and calculated upon by expeotant
heirs. There may net be the faintest hint
pf any brutally svaricious disclosure, but
subtle hints will come to her, all h more
poignant very often because 90 ~decorously
furtivo. II che has become really an old
rich lady and he's lost much Of that sensi-
tiveness to outward impressions which our
heclining years will sometimes mercifully
hmpart, she Is all he more to DO felicitat-
ed on this account. But II, rs not seldom
happens, she has lost none Of her earlier
-.-.aatts. a. -..ft,pa 80 ra,.t,o ..f