The age-herald., 1901-12-01
Relatives of the Rich.
BY GEORGE PELHAM.

Since wealth in popular estimation. confers patent of nobility on, those who have it, the lucky possessors, sur rounded by fawners and cringers, have gotten to regard themselves with very great favor. Indeed, they adopt man. ner,. as we'll as a mode of living, just a little more elevated than that common among the weil-to-do. It was noticeable at the great New York Horse Show, self for the admiration of the populace. Any one with half an eye could at a glance notice the deference and consid- eration paid to such of its members as are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. And the same observer could not fail to notice the insolence, arrogance and assumed superiority of the caddish young millionaires who have inherited the vast fortunes of their very remark able grandfathers.
 Now, these grandfathers sprang from a percentage neither noble nor remark able. In fact, to be just and truthful, among the gentry of the early part of the century, these parents were consid- cred yokels. It Is unnecessary to prove the statement by mentioning names. The names suggest themselves. None of the grandfathers of our nobility were men of culture, refinement, education or posi- tion. On the contrary, they were as a rule very awkward, energetic, capable men who smashed their way ahead re- gardless of everything except the penal code, and not too punctilious about that either Success may not have attended their brothers, and yet each brought families into the world. The result of this has been that in the third genera ton, cousins to the rich are numer- ous. -ts
 One of the most pitable and laughable phases of New York life is the effort constantly being made to suppress poor relatives to bottle them, export them, suppress them, get them out of the way. They are the bane of a social aspirant's life. The recent decision of the Supreme Court to divide certain surplus accom- mediation of the estate of Mrs. Ida A. Flagler (she being insane), led to a search for her relatives. It was found that several had been surrendered to public institutions as children. and that they have grown up in small Western towns with little or no knowledge of their family identity while others lived next door to starvation. One brother of Mrs. Flagler had only a pension of eight dollars a month, while a sister lived in greatly strengthened circum- stances"
 It seems incredible that people enjoy ing incomes running into hundreds of | thousands of dollars year would not | hasten to the relief of almost destitute cousins, but when 1t comes to brothers | and sisters lingering on the verge of | starvation. 1t seems impossible. But it | is true, nevertheless. that when rich | people with no claims on fashionable | society are taken down with the social | fever they possess for their own flesh | and blood if poor, not feelings of inter
 est and consideration, but actual hatred | and malice.
 | No breach wider and more impossible | can be made in a family than when one | of it's members has the misfortune to be- | come conspicuously rich. The rich
 brother draws himself away: his inso- l lence insults and repels, and the poor | brother, wounded in his pride, with | draws. In New Yorlk's best families
 family dinners and gatherings are con fined to those who have rich connections Family ties are fragile bonds, and who'll
 ly dependent upon the balance at the | ibanker's.
 | If chronicler should show the occu- | pations conditions and environment oi the poor, near blood relatives of the
 most important families in fashionable
 New York, it would be a horrible reve-
 lation. That such a state of facts can
 exist does not speak we'll for the Chris
 tianity of this much-vaunted twentieth | century,.