Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-08-03

MRS. So-and-sO Gets No Real Pleasure Out
Of Her Fine Gowns-She Is Never Openly
Admired-Her Charities Are Not Appre-
ciated, and She Is Grumbled at by All.
A poor relation of one of the richest fam
ilies in America once said to me, 1T is
astonishing how little comfort Mrs. So
hnd-So gets out Of her enormous wealth. 4"
''What do you meanS" was my smiling
answer.
And then listened to certain amusing
Explanatory details. Mrs. So-and-So was a
great leader of fashion. She loved Dress
Ias all such women do, and as, am afraid,
IA mighty majority of her obscurer sisters
likewise. But she never secured the faint
lest pleasure from this keen, if pardonable,
passion. She went abroad nearly every
year and had a talk with Worth in the
Rue de la 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 it
would have been ridiculous-she was so
Exceptionally rich Even If she had felt
that Worth was cheating her she would
have refrained from scolding him or argu-
hng with him, much less from suing him,
for if 1t 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," 1t would cry, "are these null
Etmillionaires To think that a woman
of Mrs. So-and-So's huge wealth should
aotually stoop to quarrel about a dress
makers bill"
Then as for the gowns themselves.
Granted that they are superb, exquisite,
brilliantly artistic, everybody takes them
as matter Of course She goes to pa
trtarchs or an assembly ball clad in one
of them and has it sprinkled over with
diamonds Of the whitest water. People
look at her, admire her, but nobody pre-
lsumes to say, "You are robed like
queen. Most women love graceful COM
Iplimepts on their attire, its neat fit, its
beeomlngness and all that. But poor rich
Mrs So-and-So never gets compliment.
Everybody is afraid to tell her that she is
imagnifcently CARRIED
At the same ball Mrs. Smith or Mrs.
Jones may appear in plainish frock and
eineoklace Of rather ordinary pearls, about
which her stock broker husband has
growled great deal before permitting her
to purchase, and at least half a dozen men
in the room have told her before supper
time how lovely the adornment is and how
BIT becomes her and how they observed it the
instant she dawned upon their sight.
but Mrs. SoAand-So is never made the re-
cipient of any such genial speeches as
these. She can coruscate in her corselet
of rubies, radiate in her revieres of dia-
monds, and nobody will presume to breathe
her a word Of graduation. Everybody
feels that It would be kind of imperti
nenoe to mention these visible signs of
her colossal income.
But Mrs. So-and-So secretly pines at
all this taciturn Difference, In her heart
she would much prefer to be 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 we'll that these are the
true critics Of such delicate yet potent de-
tails. From men they demand another
species of eulogy. 1t is always dangerous
for man to talk to woman hatteringly
about her dress. Before he knows it Qf
he wishes particularly to please herr he
has swamped himself in some sort Of state
ment that rouses either her ridicule, her
surprise or both
In matters of charity it is the same as
in matters Of social import. Everything
that Mrs. So-and-So gives to the poor is
pronounced inadequate, meager-even pitt
ably mean. Hosts Of applicants are for
ever besieging her, and 1t is quite credita-
bile that she gives with q generous hand
from Monday till Saturday, from morn
hng till night. But unless she endows
hospital or builds an asylum or POUNDS
public library no one pays heed to her
benehcence When she signs her name to
check for 81, 900, everybody (and especially
those persons whose institutions profit
by it, cannot refrain from regrets and
sneers that it was not 2,000 If it had
been $4,000, they would have sighed and
gTumbled because 1t was not SO, 600. Hun
dreds Of begging letters come to her every
week. She cannot answer them all per
sonally, and some 1t would be undignihed
for her to notice with a single line. She
employs a secretary, and those who are
favored with responses through this opis-
tolary medium soowl and frown at her
t'arroganoe."
When Christmas comes, enormities Of
piberality are expected Of her. She dispenses
with lavish hand, but no one is satisfied
from the lowly scullion in her kitchen to
THE naughty head butler above stairs. They
have all expected more" and they have
hll convinced themselves that they ought
certainly to receive more" They do not
dare to grumble, but she sees in their
faces that they would grumble If they
dared.
Then there are the poor relations In
evitably tho opulent Mrs So-and-So has
her horde Of poor relations. If she should
give each of them million, they would
not DO satisfied, and she has gradually
grown to realize this pregnant truth. She
learns q theiE disAatisfaGtions and their