Middletown transcript., 1894-07-28
] ENGLISH { is, ARlsrocRAcY.
1t Il Slowly Letting Down the Bars Of Clas
ExcIuaSvouos~

1t Ii Slowly Letting Down the Bars OF Glass
Exclusiveness.
Not SO long ago the line between the
aristocratic and other classes Of the COM
munity was very decidedly drawn at
trade. A poor family might lay claims
to gentility, and one or more e1of its men,
bers might now and then figure at, say.
county ball, but a tradesman's fam
ily-never. Now it is otherwise, the
aristocracy themselves having stepped
over the dividing line. Lord Shrews-
bury and Talbot, for instance, who takes
precedence Of all other earls, unblush-
ingly became a cab proprietor; Lord
Rayleigh" is the inscription that may
be read on the signboard of one or two
London dairies. The Marquis of Lon
dondery is prepared to deliver coal by
the ton. "No agents such are the
final words of this nobleman's adver-
tisement, put in just as any trader born
and bred might put them in. This de-
scent from aristocratic seclusion into the
arena of commercial conflict is not con-
fined to the male portion of our nobility.
Titled ladies under disguised names
carry on millinery establishments and
run cafes. Their dainty fingers, too, are
not above manipulating flowers for
profit. So generally indeed has the
sacred thirst for gold infected the upper
ten that, whereas they were won't to be
accused Of living in idleness, they are
now accused of taking the bread out Of
the mouths of those who depend entirely
upon business for their support.
Far beneath these noble ranks can be
traced similar descent Street music,
for instance, used to be discoursed by
the utterly abject and broken down.
Now men and women warmly clad and
well fed go about with organs. Troops
of men sing, rattle the bones and do a
breakdown in public thoroughfares to
the tune Of not less than the better part
of sovereign day per man. Two hun
dred pounds year in an assured situa-
tion was the salary that one young man
threw up last summer to join niger
troop at the seaside, and he doesn't re-
gret it. At the end of the season he had
more money than he ever had at one
time before, and during the season he
ate better dinners and drank better
wines than he had ever eaten or drunk
before. Hawking matches or laces or
any other trif1e in public house bars
used to be and still is way Of evading
the law against begging. Indeed the
custom of singing on the streets arose
out Of the same necessity for those in
want not to incriminate themselves.
Now you will be in the saloon bar Of
first rate refreshment house. In comes
a top hated, we'll dressed man with a
bag. Some successful stockbroker, you
think, if it be in the city. You fancy
you are the victim of delusion. Here
is this man, as well dressed as your
principal, holding his open bag before
you and asking you to buy box of ves-
tas. Well dressed women are going
about from public house to public house
pursuing similar callings. They speak
well, too. do these people, betraying a
fair amount of education. If tradesmen
have any grounds for complaining of
the aristocracy trenching on their terri
tory, surely the poor and needy have
grounds of similar complaining of hav-
ing the instruments of their profession
thus confiscated by an apparently supe-
rior class. Of course, with such gen.
eral downward trend, the poor and
needy are driven lower still, and this in
q mpasura ia seen in the ever increasing
charitable institutions. relief agencies,
soup kitchens and so forth, and the ever
increasing strain on the resources Of
such establishments. s.-Cassell's Journal.
AAIITI LIE iaiiiiI