The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-03

seek to raise their children to a level that is beyond them Millions of parents are so engaged. Do these parents regard these children as the equals or the su- periors of the children who are not sent to the schools2 What is this but the aris- tocratie influence? Commendable ambl- lion? Very well. Let it be "commenda- ble ambition" It begins in the crowded tenement house and ends where7 Does 1t rot seem to end at the Court of St. James2
 So the straw indicates.
 But let us consider the conditions as our life presents them. The dilllgent. persistent boy, whose father is toiling with pick and shovel, passes from hls school to the store. He works along making progress; marries. has children. One of his sons becomes a lawyer, a stock broxer or q railroad man. He he- oo mes rich, influential Ills son gradu- ates from Columbia, Cornell, Yale or Harvard. These scns are in n sphere of life as far removed from their grand father as the Earth from the Sun. Yet, in each s the same old family trait to advance still further. They want posi- tion so secured and fortified that 1t will be dependent on property slone. Here they come Into collision with the demo- cratic principle in earnest. Recognition of worth not based on personal merit or personal riches does not exist In this country There being no hook to hang pretentions upon ard as the pressure for place from below Is so persistent and con stant, tho would-be maker of a family name is compelled to seek conditions fa- vorable to his ambition. William Wal dorf Ast0r, in seeking England. sought 1t for the system the English laws and customs afford succc' sful individuals to build up and hold up a family name.
 In the city of New York the families who arrogated to themselves the title of "the best society," twenty years ago. place to another set, they have been ab- sorbed or dispersed by this set, which was richer and more powerful. Tor hundred years this old fashioned society rooted in tho soil of colonial days and marched along the mercantile history of the city, kept It's proud position, but within the last twenty years people who had become enriched by the industrial and railroad growth of the country de- manded recognition. The new set was to the old set as Q calcium light to wax taper with the consequent dimming of their glory. Stuyvesants, LeRoys, Ogdens, Crugers, Schermerhorns, Suy- dams, Whitneys, Remsens, were snuffed out and Vanderbilts, Sloans. Twomblys, Harrimans. Morgans Rockefellers. and the lot, became the leading families.
 Within the past ten years the English phase of American social life has devel- oped. And 1t will progress
 Today we find Mrs William Astor, who must be now at least seventy-1ve years of age entertaining in London. Fifteen years ago she did not know anybody in London to entertain. It Is about the same with the Goelets, Mrs. ogden and Mrs. Robert. We find Mrs. Bradley Martin more at home in England than in New York. A few years ago when Mrs. Martin was merely Miss Martin, daugh- ter of Isaac Sherman, the rich grocer, she was unknown in old social set of New York. When she married Bradley Martin, 0 well dressed young mar from Troy. she brought to him what he lacked funds. And now with her daughter the Countess of Craven. she is an im- portant persons In London society, with an assured position. This list could be heightened indefinitely.
 In the United States tho acquisition of wealth is the chief pursuit of the citi- zen. To 1t he subordinatcs civic honors. Wealth amassed tho possessor of it seeks tho benefits 1t oonfels. So highly Is wealth esteemed that 1t yields not on- ly respect, out certain kind of honor to its owner If he desires he uses 1t so that 1t yields hirn influence If not actual power. Wealth ltes feeling uf def erence, and the s.,ns and tokens of def erence are paid to him and his family. It is easy for them to assume an air Of sur eriority. and they generally do
 Forced into a strata of wealthy per- sons they arrogate themselves the pre- tentions of fashion and after a shcrt ex- perience naturally assume the pose of Gristocrats. If they do not seek 1t, there are thoso who force them to adopt It. Society becomes a feid of competition. Being without foundation society be- comes timorous, and tho most enterprise ing seek England when social customs have the authority ot centuries.
 These are the straws.
 The indication Is that when Ameri- cans ladened with wealth have secured foothold in tho best society of any large American city they become diseased with the aristocratic mania and develop an abnormal appetite for social prefer ment. Englnnd affords a social condition infinitely in advance of what the United States can ever afford, consequently they seek in England what they cannot find in the United States. They make pil- grimages, seeking the Holy Grail of modern fashion with the ardors of Cru saders of nine hundred years ago. If their quest prove encouraging they To- cate in England. As time goes by the numbers will increase and before many years-judging from tho direction indi- cated by the straws-the seat of Ameri- can fashion will be on the steps of Eng