The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-26
RANK AS TOP NoTcHERs IN AR
ISToCRATIC CIRCLES.
The Mysteries of the Palm Garden
Swell City Youths Who Are More
Verdant Than Farmers-American
Play On the German Stage-Cath-
edral Built By Servant Girls.
Especial Correspond.nuce.)

d
speak sneeringly of them as par
venus and to allude in tones of bitter
sarcasm to the time, not so very fal
( back, when they We're trying to get
| into society" In fact | have heard
/ those worthy millionaires spoken of Sc
sneeringly and with such frequent
contempt that feel it a bounden duty
to set them right before the public. AT
Mrs. CatniDs boarding house where
live the funny boarder who is usually
the very life of. his end of the table
becomes positively acrimonious in his
observations whenever their name is
mentioned, which is not oftener than
| once every five minutes; for in our
little community we love fashionable
chit-chat as much as any one, and as
for Mrs. Pil4owsham, she can ''remem-
Der the time when neither they nor
several other prominent families with
whose name she is familiar, held their
heads up as high as they do noW'' if l
may quote from her fashionable jargon.
Yes, in spite of their superb houses,
liveried servants, and holdings in the
New York Central system, the Wander
bits do not stand well with people of
the sort that sit at Mrs. Catnip's table,
and if all the ladies and gentlemen in
New York who have SolemnIy assured
me that they wouldn't go to such a
vulgar thing as a Vanderbilt ball if
they were asked, were to really re-
ceive Invitations TO such a function
there would be a crush about the doors
of q. kind that has not been known
since the Brooklyn fire.
From all I can learn, however, the
Vanderbilts are doing very nicely this
winter, and, so far from their having
any social snubs to endure, they are
usually spoken of in the social circles
of the town as crowned heads" while
the expression, Il am to lunch with
royalty tomorrow, !" means that you are
invited to break Vanderbilt bread and
is so understood. Concerning their
struggles to get into, society,"" of
which Mrs. Pillowsham and Mrs. Cat
nip know SO much, l would say that
the founder of the house lived his
modern comfortable life in the old
house on West Fourth street, and de-
rived more pleasure from driving his
fast horses up the road and watching
the boys exercise them in the tan
bark ring in his big stable than he did
from any sort of society that the town
could boast of.
ANCESTORS LOVED GOOD
HORSES.
William H, the second of the dynasty
cared for little outside of railroad af-
fairs, except his horses and his pic
lures, for let it be known to his credit
he was not merely a man rich enough
to buy anything that happened to
strike his fancy, but a genuine lover
of horsefiesh and a man of certain
distinct artistic taste. A professional
driver and trainer who knew him well,
once assured me that if he had not
n jrn ia
Vanderbilt could have taken rank as
perhaps the very best driver and judge
of trotting stock that this country has
ever seen. Cornelius, who succeeded
him on the New York Central throne,
began his married life in one of the
three little white three story houses
that still stand on the east side of
Lexington avenue, just. above Thirty
fifth street, and think if it had not
been for his own and his brother S
wife that the family would not have
obtained the social prominence that
they have. But after all, the present
generation has found it necessary to
take UP some form of amusement to
replace the love of horses, which dis
tinguiSh their father and grandfather,
but which for some reason, did not
descend to them. New York society,
which is not such an imposing or dis
eliminating or exclusive body as some
society reporters would have us believe,
did not object to them or to their
wealth, and L sometimes think that
Mrs. Catnip, Mrs. PillowSham and our
funny boarder are reall. too severe
upon them in their remarks about
''parvenus."
Would you like to know what attrac-
ton is drawing the largest audiences
in the town. and causing more talk
than any other entertainment now be-
fore the public? WE'LL it is a woman
who calls herself Charmion, who per-
forms on q trapeZe, but it is the ma
ture of her performance that has made
her the talk of this brilliant town. She
appears first in a handsome silk walk
ing dress, with appropriate gloves and
bonnet, is hauled up to the croSS-bar of
the trapeze by a rope, and then pro-
ceeds to divest herself of the various
articles of her apparel, until she reveals
herself to the audience in the conVe1-
tional pink tights and tunic of a fe-
male acrobat It is the feminine YER
sion of the old circus act of the drunk
ard who climbs into the ring because
he is q. friend of the clown, offers to
ride the horse around the ring and then
pulls off his clothes while the auditors
guffaw with delight. 1t may seem in
credible, but ] have never seen in Kos
ter e. Balls music hall a greater num-
Der of gentlemen of good position in
the world, than [ did the night [ went
to see Charmion convert the trapeze
into a dressing room.
FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF NEW YORK
BLUFF.
[ have long foreseen the fact that
cur new hotel, the Astoria, was des-
tined to become the fountain-h head of
New York bluff. Indeed, the number of
fakirs who have been awaiting it's COM
pletion in order to give lectures, read
ings and morning talks and song" re-
citals within it's walls became so large
that the proprietors, who also control
the Waldorf, next door to it, were
afraid that the older house would COM
pletely lose its prestige, and they have,
therefore, hitched it on to its younger
and larger. sister by means of hyphen,
which is in itself a small mark that
usually indicates the presence OF a
bluff. This great structure-now known
as the Astoria Waldorf-is huge,
gaudy affair, designed to celebrate in
tawdry plush and snickel-plate the re-
fined taste of the family that has given
it to New York. 1t possesses, however,
a certain civic significance, inasmuch
as It is a fair example of the sort OF
thing that the members of what we
respectfully term the .1better element"
do for us, on those rare occasions when
tEey put their hands in their pockets.
1T is an awful heresy to utter but
the fact is that the better clement"
of New York. concerning which SO
much has been said and written is,
1f,lx n