The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-09-21
IDIOCY GONE TO SEED.
Is This the Cream of American $50
ciety?'
Charlotte Obseryer.0

Charlotte Observer
That putrid pit for the dumping OF
the carrion of society scandals and
| sensations, the New York World
devotes a page of its last Sunday
edition to the latest performance OF
the bon-ton at Newport, Il. 1. They
die of ennui at Newport unless some
thing startling is constantly sprung.
They have tried flying kites while
standing in the surf. After that
| these men and women who are rec
ognized as leaders of American society
and fashionable life took a whirl at
| PLAYING tennis in their bathing suits,
until soon indecent dry-land personal
exposure became tame and uninterest-
| ing. Then Mrs. Stuyyesant Fish,
who revels in bearing tolerablv old
name, and Mrs. Herman Oelrichs, a
lucky miners daughter and sister
in-law to Vanderbilt, together with
a Mr.. Harry Lehr. an adventurer, who
sells champagne and is admitted to
society because, probably, he is good
looking and bad, put their heads TO-
gether and planned something new.
The champagne drummer is brilliant
on planning new things. The World's
Newport correspondent says, and adj
duces the following remarkable evil
dence of it:
Mr.. Lehr, some years ago in
Baltimore. in company with Mrs.
Frederick Gerhard and some others.
walked past great public fountain
at night. 1t was an hour when in
| spiration comes quick and brilliant.
Who suggested it no one knows, but
soon Mr.. Lehr and Mrs. Gerhard,
fully clothed, were wading knee
deep in the cool water, with every
| evidence of keen enjoyment. 1t was
merry prank The fame of the
champagne for potency and of Harry
Lehr for inventive wit went up to-
gether. Nor has there since been
any doubt of Mr.. Lehr's right to a
| place in that society whose noblest
aim is to make life happier by inno-
cent diversion"
When these three social geniuses
were seen together, we are informed
by the yellow ochre Newport cor
'those who sit or stand in the fringe
of society felt that something was
about to happen. And it did. They
went to a store and bought big rag
doll that hung in the window and
"preened its muslin frock,n what
ever that means. If our readers will
pardon us, just this once, we will
quote from the lurid, prairiefre
story of the World the following:
Then they walked soberly up
Bellevue avenue, holding the rag doll
by the hands, Mr.. Lehr on one side
and Mrs. Oelrichs on the other, while
Mrs. Fish walked on Mrs. Oelrichs'
right. Up Bellevue avenue the party
stroIled, Mr.. Lehr holding one limp
rag hand, Mrs. Oelrichs the other.
Occasionally the trio would stop an
instant to arrange the baby's gar
ments. They talked in baby lam
guage, and when they reached the
sacred gates of Bailey>s Beach all
Newport was awake and you- could
hear the shrieks of laughter for a
block about. 1t WAS conceded that
| nothing SO brilliant, so unutterably
funny had occurred in many moons
or Moons.
MEN and women of wealth and
place and power-the owner of mines
where men sweat in the dark, or
railroads where men risk their lives
of forests where the axes ring in the
bitter cold, of great steamboats, in
whose firepits boys shovel coal their
six years and die; the hundreds for
whom millions toil-gathered about
the rag baby and caressed it. 1t was
the one touch of nature that spoke to
all hearts.
docs um 'ook likes papa?n asked
Mr.. Lehr. Has um's papa's pretty
foottsies? Ask auntie if um's footsies
is like um's papa's."
A scene like this enacted on Tryon
street in Charlotte or on any street
in any North Carolina town would
stamp the actors in it as not re-
spectacle or as low bred. There is
something unutterably disgusting in
the thought of such women as these
Newport swells, who look upon the
coming of children into their homes
as domestic misfortune instead of a
glory, parading rag doll up and
down the beach, and showering it
with baby talk. And vet these things
are recognized by innumerabe lido
all over the country. who call them
selves ''society," and the Four Humid
red, the creme de la creme of fashion,
and they are initiated and envied.
IN ha &c hof Lo Il
personae of the above incident the
only respectable character is the rag
doll