The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-24
RICH GROWING POOR
NEW YoRK's sMART SET WHoL- LY GIVEN OVER TO Ex- .
 TRAvAGANCE.
Costly Costumes are Impressive for TTose Going Into Society. Luxury is Eating Into Select
 scc;ai Circles Like Canker.
New york Letter to San Francisco Argo-

New York Letter to San Francisco Argo-
 rha hauc crv of hard times is going up ,ra,n ,.anv sources where good times had lasted so long that the benedciaries had heaun to think they were to last forever. Now that the coffer is not piled high with money, good measure, pressed down and running over, sort Of aggrfeved sur prise has taken possession of people. and one hears an amount of poor talk" that makes one feel as if the complainer was short of car fare and did not know where to get the wherewithal to pay the wash bill.
 It will do the New Yorksfs good to have to try e little economizing. The class that has been hurt by the drop in stocks is the class that during the last fifteen years has advanced from the stage of few thousands a year to that of a few thousands a month. As may be imagined, they took 10 the change like ducks to water. It is these people who have been putting up the price of everything in New York. transforming the simply eie- gant life that previously distinguished the rich Gothamite and making 1t the spec- tacular, orgy of money-spending that we all hear so much about in the daily press,
 Like Their Base. They are tho people who have assisted in raising the wages of servants because, rather than take trouble with their domes- l tic domain. they will pay anything to get 1 capable employees who will take the whole matter off their hands. They are the peo- ple who have set the fashion of refurnish- ing their houses every few years, of de- fnanding as necessities articles of rare worth which until recently were regarded as only the prerogatives of millionaires And they are. above and beyond all, the people who have set a standard of dresE of such amazing aextravagance that the rich American woman has come to be a byword and a reproach even in the booths of Vanity Fair. s No women in the world spend such sums of money on their clothes as the wealthy New Workers have been doing in the last ten years. The great conten- rieres of Paris are said to manufacture two kinds of dresses-one an inexpensive and elegant kind for the French grandes ! danes and the other a kind of horid gor. l geousness and sensational cost for the American women and the Parisian demi- | mondes. Here in New York these women 1 have run the prices of clothes up to near ly double what was paid before their hus- bands began to grow rich. Perhaps in their early married life they lived in a suburb and paid $50 to $75 to a local dress. maker for their best kowns. That was twenty, years ago. Now they go to the best places on Fifth Avenue and pay from $200 to s400.
 M0d1SCeS MAklAg money. The dressmakers. with their fingers on the pulse of their public have kept on lifting and lifting their prices. They ed ucated their patrons up to paying $50 for an unlined blouse that you bought in Far is on London for $i5. They sent them to their own especial corsetiere. where one had corset made for SS0 which one could get duplicated at the French woman's round the corner for s10. They trained them to the subtle sxtravagancss of handmade tueks," of lingerie % flpe that only the most proficient blanehis- seuse de fin could wash 1t. The natthners joined In the chase of the flying dollars. and where $15 was once a reasonable sum to pay for a hat, so and $So were asked. Every article of dress rose in proportion and with the rise in prices the woman's demands for still choicer daintiness of apparel rose with 1t. Everything must be made to order. everything must be made by hand. Thus, and thus only, could sheaescape the competition of the shop giriTand feel with satisfaction that if she ot4iv looked little more elegant than haFrival on the surface she was q great deal more so underneath. I It would be difficult to form any real estimate of what such women spend on their wardrobes per anntm. We all re- member that the Presidents wife was re- ported to have said she spent $500. Per sonally I am under the impression that she was misquoted. If she had said &0ao it would have been all right and quite possible.
 Costly WArdrobes. There are thousands of women now in New York who are httingiy and stylishly fetted out on $500 year. But they are not of the handmade trucks variety: they don't get their clothes from abroad; they wear one set of furs for three sea- sons and they use what real lace they possess in places where it shows. The other day girl of my acnuaint- Rnce told me that one of the most bril-. liant young matrons of what the news papers call "the smart set'' had informed her that, no woman could "ba in society," and dress on less than $500 year. [ imagine that this is about the sum, the well-dressed woman who Is not paTtjcu- larly extravagant has to spend. It seems R good deal. but when you come to figure out her expenses you. will see it is quite modest. If she goes to the best mill liners early in the season her hats will cost her from s25 to $50 apiece; her gowns from $l5e to $500; her furs $500 to S4O0 more. Her made-to-order shoes and slippers will be n0 a pair; her corsets sz5:
 her silk petticoats from 20 to 80. As for her lingerie that will easily run up to- wards the $l,000 mark. All things con- sidered. the 5000 Is a small amount for her to get along on, and the young matron who thought 1t sufficient must have been bit of a finAneier.
 Economy is Imperative.
 From this. onward and upward. any amount can be spent, and has been spant until this year, when the extfnKuisher vas put on many innocent pleasures. One very fashionable and beautiful wounx wo- man whose name constantly figures in the "society coluFnns' told a man of nv Aequaintance that she ''could not Het on on less than s6Oooe year." He thought the sum excessive and asked her how abe managed to spend so much money on her personal adornment. She thought . ,,,o- ment and then replied: well resI Iaoo on my undercIothes gets away with ~ good deal of it."
 As might be imagined dress ia m an. sorbing topic of conversation amonr r,o-