The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-18


 cial charm and influence for an event that holds the stage for only brief week of the year are not difficult to dis cover and understand. They are many and severally powerful. They combine to make the Horse Show of recurring autumns successful and changeless in drawing qualities and attractiveness, de- spite adverse criticism and predictions of failure even in the most restless mind- ed and changeable Of communities.
 New York society is no longer a homo geneous body of a few hundred or thous- and people of equal birth, relatively good position and tastes. and whose members are people known to each other as when the first Horse Show was held in the old Madison Square Garden twenty years ago. It is now an aggregation of people divided into sets, whose uniting link is not wealth or birth or bringing up in New York, but membership in or utilization with some one of dozen suburban country colonies, known by the name of their summer, spring, autumn and even winter abiding places and where their members have their villas and cottages.
 This aggregation of sets with the pass ing of the old time social life of and in the city while their membership is in a measure interchangeable, grows more and more segregated every year Their mem bers meet occasionally at Newport Bar Harbor or Southampton or in Europe in summer at Lenox and the Virginia Hot Springs in autumn, or in Florida, Egypt or on the Riviera in early spring, but no longer. with the abandonment of the Patriarch and Assembly balls, have they any common meeting ground at any time in New York.
 The women of these sets in particular do not have the opportunities afforded the men in their business and club life to meet and thus retain or acquire the ac- quaintance of their fellows. Content per- haps for most of the year with the socie- ty of their particular set. they will want an opportunity to at least once year minge with and see their sisters of other sets. and must 1t be confessed?-to show their own gowns and hats and study and criticise those of their sisters of other sets.
 So the first cause of the Horse Shows continuing popularity is the desire for a larger social theater ana feminine cu- riosity and rivalry.
 The second cause or reason for the Horse Shows vogue is the fact that 1t comes at time of year when the first cold winds of the coming winter incline to the comforts and gayety of the town Country life and pleasures have been en- joyed for many months by md-Novem- Der. The days are short and there is talk of the theaters with their new plays of the shops and their displays and of the gay restaurants in the air. The Horse Show gives an excuse to go to town and see and enjoy these pleasures which after long abstention has the added charm of novelty. This again ap- peals most strongly to the feminine ele- ment of society.
 Third, the Horse Show attracts the so- ciety and would-be society people of other cities. who there can meet and see the beaux and belles, the maids and ma irons of Newport Bar Harbor and Southampton near at hand, and whose names and even faces are familiar to them from much publication and illus tration, on dress parade. This also at tracts the general public both of New York and the country, who also wish to see the members of "America's court circle" as it were. and to study and comment on the winter fashions, which the Horse Show is supposed to bring out for the first time. This last attribute of the show, and one which has caused it to be wittily called the "Clothes Horse Show" also brings small army of dressmakers and milliners from all over the country to the Garden.
 And last, the Horse Show attracts an other element, because there fine horse flesh is to be seen and the latest styles and cry in vehicle and appointments. har-