The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-10
PATHOs OF RICHES.
Why Some Wealthy Persons Enjoy
Little Comfort.

Mrs So-and-ga Gtts Real Pleasure out
of Fer Tine tsoTyns-she Is Never Openly
Adnaired-IIer Charities Are Not Appre-
oiated, and Si,e Is Grun,hled at by All.
A poor relation Of one ofsthe richest fam
lilies in America once said to me- It is
astonishing how little comfort Mrs. So
and So gets out OF her enormous wealth. y
What Go you mean?" was my smiling
answer.
And then I listened to certain amusing
explanatory details. Mrs. So-and- So was
great leader CT fashion. she loved dress,
rs 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,, 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. Toiconsider it
would have been ridiculous-she was SO
exceptionally rich. Even if she had felt
that Worth wsss cheating her she would
have refrained from scolding him or argu-
ing with him, much less from suing him,
for if it should transpire that she had
made any sort of protest against his Dill
she would be certain that Sarcastic gossip
would at once pounce upon her. How
ayarioious," it would cry, ''are these null
timillionaires! To think that woman
of Mrs. So-andsSo's huge wealth should
actually stoop to quarrel about 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
triarchs' or an assembly ball clad in one
of them and has it sprinkled over with
diamonds of the whiSest water. People
look at her, admire her, but nobody pre-
sumes to sey, You ave robed like
queen" Most women love graceful COM
pliments on their attire, its neat fit, it's
becomingnesssarad all that. But poor rich
Mrs. So-and- Soenever gets a compliment.
Everybody is afraid to tell her that she is
msgni1oently gs.rbed.
At the same ball Mrs. Smith or Mrs.
Jones may appear in a plainish frock and
necklaces Of rather ordinary pearls, about
which her stock broker husband has
igrowled great deal before permitting her
to purchase, and at least half dozen men
In the room have told her before supper
time how lovely the adnrnment is and how
it becomes her'end how they observed it the
instant she daWned upon their sight
But Mrs Se-anxi-Se is never made the re-
cipient of any such genial speeches as
these. She CAM coruscate in her corselet
of ruhies, radiate yin her revieres of dia-
monds, and nobodywill presume to breathe
her word of grnsaIation. Everybody
feels that 1t would be a kind of imperti-
nence 10 mention ;thesetyisible signs of
her colossal income.
But Mrs, So-and-So secretly pines at
all this observation-disclosures In her heart
she would mwch. prefer to admired for
the gloEyof her costumes and hertJewels,
especially by her own sex. Women al
ways.ake' to haveotherwomen praise their
appasas, knowing well that these are the
true orisicsiof such delicate yet potent de-
tails. From men, they demand another
species ofseulogy.s, 1t is always dangerous
for a, man to tai3 to woman fatteringly
about her dress. Before he knows it iii
he wtahes particularly to please herr he
has swamped himself in some sort of state
t1nent that rousese either her'ridicule, her
sg1EpEiEesor both
In matters efscharity it is the same as
III 1A21tGCts5. Aa1RNlUs A4fOA
that. Mrs So-and- So gives to the poor is
pronounced inadequate, meager-even pitt
ably mean. Hosts of applicants are for
ever beszeginga her, and it is quite credita
BILE that she gives with a generous hand
from Mondaystill Saturday, from morn
ing till night. But unless she endows g
hospital OF builds. an asylum or Pounds 6
public library no one pays heed to hel
,benehcence. NFhen she signs her name to &
check for 81, 600, everybody (and especially
those persons whose institutions profit
by IT'D cannot refrain from regrets an6
| sneers that it was not 50, 900. If it had
been 50, 600, they would have sighed and
| grumbled because it wasinot $8, 900. Hun
dreds of begging letters come to her every
week She cannot answer them all per
sonally, andesome it+would be undignidet
| for her to notice with single line. Sht
employs secretary, and those who arr
favored with responses through this epis
tolary medium scowl and frown at hel
hsarrngance. +"