The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-19
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERGRADUATES OF
THE METROPOLIS.

Only Sixty Families in the Highest
Social COurt of United states Ac-
. cording TO DIR. Nichols, a New So
ciaI Arbiter-MarcOni Leading At
traction for RepOrters-Friendly
sons of philadelphia Organized.
How Public Opinion VIII Solve
the New York Central Tunnel
ProbIem--A Remarkable Portrait
Painters Exhibit.
New York, Jan. ]. Some years ago
when the late Ward McAllister, in his
attitude of social arbiter, announced
that there were but 400 people in New
York who knew how to comport them
selves properly in a ball room, there
arose a dire wall from the several
thousands of the left-outs. Never
theless the classification struck, and
the Four Hundred" has been the
accepted term to designate metropol-
itan society ever since. Now a rev.
erend person named Nichols-Charles
Wilbur de Lyon Nichols, late Of
Nichols, Conn, but later of ia Mad
ison avenue, New York City-a friend
of the late Ward McAllister, be It
noted. comes along with his little
hatchet and so trims the society tree
of its superfluous branches, twigs and
buds that there is left upon ii scantly
sixty families, not in New York alone,
but in the whole United States. me
Rev. DR. Nichols new and condensed
list is based upon many talks with
Mr. McAllister presumably not re-
cent, as DR.. Nichols does not claim
to hold spiritualistic communication
with the dead. and many talks with
the social leaders of to-day in the
principal cities of the United States,
and upon my own Judgment OF the
fitness of things.
"A social court has been established
in this country continues the eX-
pert, as difficult to be presented TO
as any court in Europe. 1t is FOUNDED
upon wealth and only those of great
wealth can be a part of that court or
even aspire to mere presentation
Upon the head of Mrs. William Astor
DR.. Nichols sets the regal crown. She
is the leader of American society, ne
boldly. declares, and to her will succeed
her daughter-in-law, Mrs. John Jacob
Aston Other New York families that
bask in the fierce light that beats upon
the throne are the Vanderbilts, the
Belmonts, the Whitneys, the Burdens
and the Cfoelets Almost the entire list
of thirty-six New York families Is
made up of those who are newcomers,
socially, with one. or at most, two gen
erations. The only families in the ros-
ter with any pretensions to genealogi-
cal standing, are the Goelets, the Pot
ters the Fishers. the Dyers and the
Rhinelanders. All the rest are of the
Vanderbilt- Belmont Burden type: peo-
pie who have pushed themselves for
ward within the last quarter of a CEN
fury by social energy backed by enor-
NOUS wealth. The Astors and their
connections are of an older stock, but
rot greatly so. Fifty years ago the best
houses in New York were closed to the
family of the great hide merchant and
land buyer.
AS for other localities, Washington
gets four presentatives-three of
them, the Crugers. the De Kovens, and
the Grants being really New Workers.
Philadelphia four; Boston three (the
redoubtable Mrs Jack Gardner not
among themO, Baltimore four; San
Francisco and Providence each three;
Chicago. two. the Potter Palmers and
the Chatfield Taylors, of course; the
Carolinas. two; and Virginia one The
rest of the country doesn't appear.
II is not probable that many peo-
pie will commit suicide or die of grief
because they were omitted from the
Rev. DIR. Nichols list. AT the same
time the publication of the list is al
most sure to stir up no little discus
sion and feeling. Many will say that
the friend of the late Ward McAllister
doesn't know what he is talking about.
The fact remains that with a few nota-