The age-herald., 1900-08-26
IMPEACHMENT OF NEW
 YORK'S SOCIAL CIRCLE

By Thomas Nelson Page.
 The inner circle of New York and New port society-the "4OO' of the late Ward McAllster-wAs scathingly arraigned by Thomas Nelson Page, the Virginia novel; ist in a public address at Concord the other day It's leaders were likened to freaks and malefactors, its life was branded as hollow, and it's admirers were styled as un- American sycophants.
 The occasion was the annual observance of Concord's Old Home day celebration. Mr. Page, as the orator of the day, took occasion to pay high tribute to the sturdy New England home as one Of the bulwarkS of the nation, and with this as contrast inveighed against New Yorks society lead CTS.
 Your Governor" he said, 'has struck on an idea which Is not only an exceeding ly happy one, but one which IS much more important and far-reachng than appears at first glance. He has started in this home festival an institution which, if propertly fostered, is likely to produce important con- sequences. It Is founded on one Of the strongest and most abiding principles in our whole American life, the love or nome
 This home passion is one of the basic principles on which the life and vigor Of people are builded. It is the very foundation on which the character of a nation rests, and when 1t is impaired, however weak the enemy that assaults 1t, the whole structure becomes shaken and must in time crumble to its fall.
 q am proud to say that this love of home is one of the basic characteristics of our race. It Is in the homes of the people that the character of the nation is molded. The hearthstone of the home Is the anvil on which the character of the men who com pose and must make the destiny of this no ic hno shape for good or i'll.
 'I have always been struck by the sln- cerity which l have found in the American home. Unfortunately for our reputation, the phase of home life which IS most re quently brought into public notice Is one which, if 1t can be called home life at all, Is certainly not representative of American home life. It is that which is found in certain peculiar circles of certain large cities in this country.
 "This is the home life which is most fre- quently referred to and advanced in the public prints, possibly because it is the most extraordinary form that domestic life has ever taken in this cuntry Unhappily for us, it goes abroad as being consutu- ent part of our home life, and, very redic- ulously, 1t is imagned-perhaps because 1t magines Itself and asserts itself-to be the highest form of our home life.
 q thank God, for my part, that it Is not only not the highest form of American nfe, put that IL IS no part WndteVer ol American home life. It is only a counter felt presentment of what it esteems to be- a form of foreign fashionable life. It has not even the virtue of having its vices sim cere
 "A preacher-and have no doubt good preacher and a good man-preached the other day before his people-or that segment of them that goes to church-a sermon calling their attention to their du- ties in plain and vigorous language, for which he has been much and justly praised in the newspapers of the county. But Rev. Dr. Hamilton is the rector of New York church. and the New York in which his church is situated is not the least pro- vincial section of this country. It arro- gates itself to be sort of sacred and 1or- bidden city within the outer city of New York proper.
 'The major portion of the congregation which he addressed at Newport the other day belongs to that New York and to such sycophants as can buy noldlng Within its borders and the reverend preacher, in order to make his sermon go down with his congregation used an argument which, in the interest of American civilization 1 must repudiate. He told them that they must remember that 50,000,000 of American citizens had their gaze fastened upon them and looked to them as their exemplars, ap- plying their energies and spending their lives in endeayoring to emulate them,
 ''I know not how to characterize such nonsense except in the plain Vernacular. With such insensate f1attery pouring into their ears, no wonder that little set of gilded imitators lose their bearing become blinded and fall into the ditch of folly and profligacy.
 q make so bold as to assert that there are not only not 50,o00,000 of people in this country who sit with envious if not ador- ing gaze fastened upon that spectacle of