The Jennings daily record., 1902-12-05
The Peerage
Of Dollars
Some Views Of the Aristocracy in Cur
Democratic County.

The few enormously wealthy American
families Of which the head enjoys an as
sured annual income OF more than MIL
lion dollars may be regarded as repre-
senting in the American republic what
the royalties represent in Engsahd
with unconscious fitness. auasi.royai u, u,
ties In ling them oil kings. money
kings. and mining Kings" Most of
live. and they receive from their immedi-
ate encourage something OF the ose7 onse
tanIs 10 eiSen so shnsa rho are Of the
royal bio; d. Coming down a grade. We
have the somewhat larger group OF those
dollars down to hundred thousand
These individual as a class. are our
Gf tine BEtah
having. LEI US say. the relative rank Of !.
duke. while the others represent q de-
lively the equals Of nlarauises. sarls. v:s-
counts. and barons. Then come what we
may style in British terminology the "4v-
comes ranging from n hun6.red thousan nd
dollars year to twenty thousand. Social
families whom we ma may s collectively de.
scribe as the 'lower mioGle classes hav-
Ing incomes of not more than. twenty
thousand dollars and not less than five
This Is. think approximately = res-
true to the facts of American liee tc-4aY
Moreover, these facts are not to be made
a subject for regret or for demagog..
fication has social raison d'etre. ana
therefore sort OF justification. 1t is idle
Who do not enter into even the lowest .;
these classes are more refined. more cicv-
er, and more accomplished than some o:
or even to the royal" group. That is the
sort of remark that could readily b.
made. and, that, in fact. is often msd.
ALSO. Many an English terrae fllus has
ell the marks of gentle breeding. while
The vulgarity OF an English duchess.
when an English duchess happens TO be
vulgar. exceeds in offensiveness the yul-
The late queens uncles were startling
specimens of uncouth clowns: while one
finding anywhere so perfect and precious
combination of blackgLard and buffoon
as was George ". Yet all this is ir-
1t stands to reason that one who, either
he cause of his birth or because of his
money has been surrounded from child
and training, and who has the conscious
ness of power, with the habit of COM
such an individual must in nine cases gu,
which viii justify his position OF superi-
Finally this division OF our peo,le IN
to classes. and this practica! separation
Of class from class, is not an arbitrary
and unnatural thing. 1t is not forced
1t is not the result nor the. acco-r,nani-
n.ent of a snoobish feeling of exclusive
ness" 1t is simply inevitable and comes
about of itself There is very little real
snobbishness among our plut tocrats--a,
least among >he men. If the family
with the $4,000 income does not usually
have intimate relations with the family
possessed of a 81 .0DN,WN income this ~
not primarily because the latter has 20
willed it. 1t is because the two families
have wholly different standards Of ex-
of living. The $50 900 family carnot IL
the things which the other family does.
tertainments. or. in general. live at the
same place: and hence. very sensiply.
it does not try to do so. There is no
question of one set being CsSentia .iy
better than the other The two are
simpl- upon different planes. and essess
quite different environments H Thurs
ton Peck in Ainslee's.