The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-08-26
A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.
How an American Bought His
Way Into British Society.
BOARDED AT so MUCH PER WEEK.

BOARDED AT so MUCH PER WEEK.
HIS Disclosure of Purchasing From
= Dowager Countess For the Week.
" Sum Of Fifty-two Dollars an In
PRODUCTION to Titled Persons Ee-
came Acquainted Through an Ad.
A cable dispatch recently published
In New York stated that London So
ciety was considerably wrought up
London Daily Mail, signed american
Visitor" The writer of this letter de-
clared that for the weekly sum Of 10
guineas about $52) he was being en-
tertained by a dowager countess for
the Goodwood and Cowes racing sea-
son, the arrangement including intro
auctions to titled persons, on condition
that 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 SUBJ
United documentary evidence establish
Ing the genuineness of the communica-
tons mentioned in the letter.
The letter is dated off Cowes, Isle of
Wight, Aug. l, and here 1t is in part:
l am In a chair under an awning on
the deck Of a noble yacht that today
makes a unit in the great floating for
est off Cowes, having dined we'll at a
board graced by the presence of proba-
bly, more real aristocrats than all my
confreres in Wall street have ever
seen. l am a mere moneyed American,
Of confessedly snobbish tendencies, and
l do not feel pleased with myself. Nor
is my contempt for my fellow Amer
leans diminished by the reflection that
Indirectly l shall pay for that dinner.
On the contrary, the fact that I have
entertained, unknown to themselves,
SOM of the proudest and bluest blood
ed owners Of pedigrees in Burke's is a
tidbit lending a pleasant flavor to my
cigar. The latter, which I suspect will
cost me a dollar in my board bill, I ex-
tracted from a box bearing a coronet
inscribed with a motto that since Boil
ingbroke's days has been the watch
word of generations of fighters.
l am the first paying guest to be re-
ceived 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
dowager countess, my present land
lady, undertook to receive me for Good
wood and Cowes, introducing me to a
certain number of her titled friends.
l made the dowager countess's &C.
%quaintance through an advertisement
in the "board and apartments wanted
column of the Morning Post, announc-
ing my ambition to mix in good Eng
lish society, approximate terms to be
stated. The dowager's was one of
thirty-eight replies received, half of
them bearing %coronets and the names
of people making a splash in society.
as we "vulgar Americans" term it. One
application bore an impressive daub Of
purple wax with a coronet and straw
berry leaves.
OF the many applications received,
my secretary decided on the dowager
countess, as she seemed to offer the
best opportunities, SO that I found that
for six shillings and nine pence, the
cost Of my advertisement, the doors
Of the highest English society were
flung wide open to welcome me. Next
day the successful applicant, the dow
ager countess, telephoned me.
Americans visiting England c~riticise
your nonhustling and unbusinesslike
ways, but they ought to have dealings
with some bill burdened, entail ridden
aristocrats looking for paying guests
and they would shed that idea. No
Wall street hustler could have handled
the telephone better than the dowager,
and the way she stuck through subse-
quent negotiations made mi thank my
stars and stripes that I had no need to
talk dollars to her every day. The
dowager made me put away all my
American clothes before she would
consent to temporarily adopt me, and
she expressed the wish that l do the
same with my American accent. I find
the latter feat difficult, but during the
week at Goodwood and by ~hardrractice
I have rubbed OF the sharper corners
OF my Objectionable twang, and the
dowager gives me daily lessons after
lunch on the yacht.
So behold me this evening sitting on
one Of the smartest yachts in the
Cowes roads, satisfied with everybody
and everything, for l am certainly get
ting my moneys worth.
Gracefully reclining in a chair near
by is one of the most beautiful debu-
tantes Of the season. She is the dOwa-
gers youngest daughter, and. being
an impressionable bachelor with enough
money to build up the shattered for
tunes Of this good old family-it is
curious, but my cigar smoke makes a
succession of rings.