The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-18

ally Ia this country the ambition Of prog
ress is only creditable. The examples Of
striving for mere social vanities, out OF
which the newspaper philosophers are
making 90 much capital for savage
essays, are relatively few. The particular
society In which they are displayed 10
typical only Of itself. People usually are
content with the association to which
they have the title OF congeniality. They
do not violently storm the walls OF social
exclusion, and they do not need to do it.
for the gates to the citadel will open to
them eagerly if they are Of the sort
wanted within, and violent entrance
may be punished with subsequent
ostracism.
Everybody who is familiar with New
York and Newport society OF the present,
and who is old enough to be able to
look back to even single generation
ago, knows that it is composed mainly
of people then in relatively humble cir
cumstances. The names OF the social
heroes and heroines 80 ANONYMOUSLY
celebrated in papers far and near are
usually names which were utterly I'M
known to the circle of fashion fifty years
ago; yes, twenty-five years ago. Yet
oftentimes these are the very people
who give to it its present distinction.
Usually they were graduated into it
naturally, but there are examples enough
among them of the social climber.
Really, that society, 80 far from having
been exclusive, has been democratic, and
it is democratic still; though, OF course,
fashion is expensive. At any rate, it is
exacting in it's demand that whoever
would be Of it must be factor contribut-
ing to it's amusement. As it's attitude to
the divorced and the remarked indicates,
it is liberal in the extreme and it is not
thin-skinned. There seems to be no
excuse for climbing" over the fence OF
its preserve, 30 easy has it been for any
one who had the attributes and Access
series requisite to get into it. Go over
its history and you will find that some Of
its chief figures now were seemingly
social impossibilities generation ago.
Read the diaries Of fashionable life in
New York, even of the generation i'm
mediately preceding the civil war, and
with very few exceptions you will find
unmentioned the names of families OF
most present social distinction.
That is, 80 far from falling into deca-
denoe, this society has been continually
freshened with new vigor. 1t has not
kept up feeble existence by the process
of breeding in and in, but it's vitality has
been invigorated steadily by taking in
fresh blood, until now it is thoroughly
transformed. To this transformation
both the West and the South have con-
tributed 1t is not an aristocratic So
ciety in any sense, but is distinctively
democratic 1t is not decadent, but is
very much alive. Possibly Newport
will pass out Of vogue, but its decadence
will not be due to any invasion from the
West" nor to any moral degeneration
peculiar to the society affecting that
place. Viewpoints social fame can only
fall away when the fashionable crowd
has grown tired of it and finds some
other place where 1t can amuse itself
better. Social climbing" will not kill
it, because its fashionable population
already consists in chief part of people
who would have been stigmatized as
climbers" a generation ago If they
had assumed to aspire to fashionable
elevation.