The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1904-09-01
4 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.
Eaow an American Bought His
.
Way Into British Society.
BOARDED At so MUOH PER WEEK.

ASs9 Disclosure OF Purchasing FROM
az DovaGer Countess For the Week
NY sum Of Fifty-tyyo Dollars an In
apoGnction to Titled Persons - Be-
asan2e Acquainted Through an AID.
3 cable dispatch recently published
m New York stated that London So
ss9Ey was considerably wrought up
aVer the publication of a letter in the
London Daily Mail, signed american
Visitor" The writer of this letter de-
H.2ared that for the weekly sum Of 10
gEIineas (about S52) he was being en-
cGEtained by q dowager countess for
Ehe GOodWOOd and Cowes racing sea-
son, the arrangement including intro
iauctions to titled persons, on condition
k11S2t the boarder did not wear American
clothes and hid his American accent
The London Daily Mail in cabling the
letter to the New York American sub
EsxtGted documentary evidence establish
1Eg the genuineness of the communica-
lions mentioned in the letter.
The letter is dated off Cowes, Isle of
wight, Aug. /, and here it is in part:
am in a. chair under an awning on
azse sleek of a noble yacht that today
makes unit in the great floating for
asc OF Cowes, having dined we'll alta
as0ard graced by the presence of proba-
MY more real aristocrats than all my
goufreres in Wall street have ever
seen. am mere moneyed American.
Of cOnfessedly snobbish tendencies, and
Z do not feel pleased with myself Nor
Is my contempt for my fellow Amer
fsc2as diminished by the reflection that
Indirectly l shall pay for that dinner.
On the contrary, the fact that I have
entertained, unknown to themselves,
EE1gne of the proudest and bluest blood
ed owners of pedigrees in Burke's is a
Laal11t lending pleasant flavor to my
cigar. The latter, which l suspect will
ez7sG me dollar in my board bill, eX-
fracted from a box bearing a coronet
Inscribed with a motto that since Boil
1Egbroke's days has been the watch
word of generations of fighters
Sam the first paying guest to be re
eeiTed into the bosom of the distin
gUished but impoverished family bear
Ing this crest. For something approach
Ing my chief clerks salary, $4,000, the
tewager countess, my present land
2zfy, undertook TO receive me for Good
wood and Cowes. introducing me to d
certain number of her titled friends
made the doWager countess's &C
gu2intance through an advertisement
LIZ the board and apartments wanted
GeIunn OF the Morning Post, announc-
fgg my ambition to mix in good Eng
1zSs1a society, approximate terms to be
STATED. The dowager's was one of
ta1trtyeight replies received, half of
item bearing coronets and the names.
CT people making splash in society
as I'VE vulgar Americans" term it, One
application bore an impressive daub Of
purple wax with coronet and straw
berry leaves.
OF the many applications received,
my secretary decided on the dowager
CCuntess, as she seemed to offer the
best opportunities, so that l found that
G0C six shillings and nine pence, the
cost of my advertisement, the doors
eG the highest English society were
day the successful applicant, the dow
Rger countess, telephoned me.
Americans visiting England criticise
ycUr nonhustling and unbusinesslike
ways, but they ought to have dealings
with some bill burdened, entail ridden
MCsstocrats looking for paying guests
EEd they would shed that idea. No
Wall street hustler could have handled
TIE telephone better than the dowager.
azs6 the way she stuck through subse-
grzent negotiations made me thank my
stars and stripes that had no need to
talk dollars to her every day. The
Gowager made me put away all my
American clothes before she would
eonsent to temporarily adopt me, and
ME expressed the wish that l do the
SaGne with my American accent. find
TIE latter feat difficult, but during the
week at GOodwood and by hard practice
x Save rubbed off the sharper corners
of G9y Objectionable twang, and the
Lewager gives me daily lessons after
Eaxada on the yacht
Sc behold me this evening sitting on
gGe of the smartest yachts in the
Cawes roads, satisfied with everybody
azs1 everything, for am certainly get
EsGg my moneys worth.
Gracefully reclining in a chair near
ny is one of the most beautiful debu-
nantes Of the season. She is the dowa
ge<'s youngest daughter and, being
nl 9Bpressionable bachelor with enough
u10rey to build up the shattered for
fznes of this good old family-it Is
gszxious but my cigar smoke makes a
succession Of rings.
Near by sits the dowager countess.
Ta the glow Of the setting sun she
looks almost pretty again, and 1 can
believe the story that in the mid-Vic-
trsCzan days she was an autocratic
queen Of beauty at whose frown men
weezt tiger hunting in India and did
either desperate things. The stories
Ez71st be true, for the dowager herself
faZd me.
>Tnaning over the doWager's chair