The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-27

'New York;" he said, "has grown less rapidly, but more surely, than the other cities, and its progress gives a more exact idea of the real develop ment of the United States. If Tocque- Vile could see New York to-day, how great his admiration would be! It has a population of nearly two million. The people are no longer occupying themselves with building up the pres tige of the state and ignoring their personal Interests An aristocracy has
 been formed. One may ask: How can an aristocracy exist among a people so youngT It requires long time to build up regulations and to give | chance to the legends to grow round names and localities. What do four or five generations amount to? No doubt 1t is very short interval of time, but so many great things occurred during
 the war of independence and since the
 battle of Saratoga that certain patri- ots gained the respect and admiration of their contemporaries; and the recol- lection of their great achievements is attached to their names. Consequent ly it is easy for their descendants to benefit from the eclat which is thrown around the old families.
 Moreover, the peculiar formation of the country furnishes another cause for the existence of an aristocracy, Before becoming an independent re- public, America, as everybody knows, was only an English colony; but what great many people do not know Is the peculiar character of the people who settled in that portion of North America which is called New England, formed by the states of Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. According to certain historians the founders of those colonies, the Puri- tans, had a considerable influence upon the development not only of their own territory, but also of the entire coun- try. They were not, as one might inn agine, worthless adventurers who went to seek a fortune on a virgin soil-men without standing in society, without money and without scruples, people of bad reputation, obliged to quit their country and greedy spectators. They were men who had in their own coun- try what the ordinary colonist hopes to acquire in new country; that is to say, wealth, comfort and an enviable social position. They were pilgrims, as they called themselves--the pilgrims of thought. They belonged to that Puri- tan sect so much persecuted at that time in England, that came to seek be- yond the seas the liberty which they could no longer find in their native | land. They expatriated themselves not merely to gain material advantages.
 Their aim was still higher. They dreamed of the triumph of their own | doctrines and of their own ideas. They were, as has been aptly said, the seed
 of a great people that God had placed
 with His own hand upon a predestined
 land.' Any one might be proud of such
 ancestors; consequently, we see few | Americans in a certain position of for tune who do not claim to be the de-
 scendants of the Pilgrims. These de-
 scendants, real or unreal. and the de-
 scendants of men who occupied high positions in politics or at the bar, have formed the nucleus of a chosen society
 which in a short time became especial | ly in Boston, in Philadelphia and in Baltimore a veritable aristocracy of birth
 l "The riches of the country augment ed with the growth of commerce and l industry, and great fortunes were built up. A group of families of merchants
 and manufacturers, whose prosperity and expensive living surround them
 with a certain prestige, formed by the
 side of the aristocracy of birth an ar
 istocracy of money. These two socie- 1 ties advanced in line, and from their
 union there results a superior caste having it's own laws, it's etiquette, its prestige, and it's connections with the
 old noble families of Europe, with
 which it willingly becomes allied,
 This aristocracy, however, is far from
 the possession of that haughtiness
 which belongs to the European aristoc-
 racy. It is forced to respect the senti-
 ment of equality which is so manifest
 in the United States. This prevents it from wounding the pride of those who I occupy an inferior position, and that
 pride is so great that the American,
 man or woman, can never resign him.
 self to service The servants are all
 foreigners. Their wages are very high,
 but the veritable American prefers to
 gain less rather than condescend to
 perform servile work"