The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-21
HOW MIDAS ENTERTAINS
Dinner With the Plutuses and a Peep
at Their Library.
COSTLY PICTURES AND DRESDEN CHINA
American Arislocracy Of Today is FOUNDED on
Wealth and the Dollar Mark IS Its Coat
of Arms. William Waldorf
Astor in England.

NStOI III LHSId
The recent death of Pierre Lorillard re-
calls to mind the fact that he was a
least to his own thinking, an aristocrat
of the arislocrats. He declared more
than once that his business was spending
money" and that he did it in lordly
style. Priding himself of his exclusive
ness he established Tuxedo Park in or
der that rich people might enjoy theil
own splendid society unmolested by i'm
pecunious folk, no matter how honorably
born we'll behaved or gifted. In his prime
Lorillard was the heaviest swell this
country ever saw, carrying his head dis
painfully high and manifesting the utmost
Impotence when brought in connection
with people of short pedigree and small
purse. Under his influence, the Union
Club in New York became so exclusive
that it was nearly as much as an ordin-
airy citizens life was worth to knock at
its doors and speak to a lacquey.
And yet this man was of the humblest
ancestry. His father started at the bot
tom as snuff dealer and it was only
by virtue of the wealth he piled up that
his sons became proud and naughty.
Pierre was called ''The Prince" and his
brother acted as if he were a Duke.
Despite this latter fact there were in
Pierre Lorillard's day. as now, devout
snobs and crawling sycophants who spoke
with bated breath of his exceeding great
riches and discussed in tones of admiring
awe his splendid style. That is all he had,
If his observant contemporaries are to
be believed. They describe him as JANUS
ingly dull but enormously, fabulously
rich" His riches were spent on fast
horses superb yachts, fine houses, high
living and the creation of splendid parks
in which the rich might disport them
selves without rubbing up against the
poorer people that they condemned.
y
And this brings me to the question
whose is the loss, by this eXclusiveness OF
the rich? Certainly not the poor mans.
You are introduced to a scholar, he
gives you some of his learning, or to a
traveller and you get some of his expert
ence: an artist paints for you; a musician
sings, and writer lays before you his
treasure of thought. But introduced to
q man whose only distinction is his riches
what advantage do you gain from his ac-
part is that for which he is distinguished
money; and as to that you are no OBJ
ject OF charity.
shocked. why" she pleads, che will give
you some of his money by giving you some
of the pleasure which is derivable from
what the money buys. Where are his balls
and his dinners and the art treasures in
his homer
For these you are grateful; and yet
they represent nothing but money. There
is neither taste nor intelligence nor tai
ent in the giver of the dinner or the pos
SCISSOR of the art treasures, and the sole
relation between him and them IS his
ability to pay for them. You drink his
superior wines at the dinner, but are you
real sure that, but for the label and the
price, he could tell the difference between
the finest madeira and a common sherry
You admire his glass and porcelain
beautiful works of art; but think you
he could tell you of Dresden china--its
history, its masters, its manufacture?
From his dinner you walk into his IL
brary or art gallery. He has all the
proper books, with exquisite bindings
works of art again; but what does he
know about them? He never read a book
worth the reading, and among the great
minds of literature he is as much out of
place as a bull in a china shop But his
pictures, surely you can enjoy them with
him, for here are represented all the
great masters. But are they not mere
for the same reason that the books are
here: merely because their owner has
money to buy them, because it is under
stood that fine house must have fine
library and costly pictures? Think YOU
their owner knows a Millet from a
Cainsborough, or whether Giotto was a
Greek or a Roman?
In many many cases. he does not.
Though he has surrounded himself with
beautiful treasures and costly decorations
it too often happens that he does not
comprehend their meaning and real worth
In thus forcing them upon your attention
is he not then, at best, but the curator
to fine museum Like the lacquey who
opens the door fer you to we'll fur
nished club he is faultlessly dressed,
ccndescending in manner, and polite in
demeanor-in short like a peer of the
realm. You thank him and you will come
again, but you can never forget that he
knows nothing of the real value and sig
\Qifcance of the things he shows you. ard
more beautiful it all is, the more
" he displays his total want OF per-
Of its beauty,
will go again and again to see
pictures and vases and porcelain
tues. You will admire the grace