The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-21


 ures, the accumulations of centuries the immense drawing rooms through which flowed an imposing throng of women in silk and gold robes of court Richness and diversity of costume in 1880 had vanished, continued Mime de Longueville. The style of that grande dame of the past was particularly suited to her; was becor1ing to no one else; the very material of which her robe was made was woven exclusively for her. The gown of the social leader of 1880 in cut and texture was in no way different from that of other women of her society. It could fit any form and it was only individual grace or taste that inlparted to it the quality of distinction. 3yG < 9~
 Mime de Longueville evidently aimed to be impartial, for she says that the social leader of 1880 had a better and more cultivated mind than she of the old regime, whose intel lectual boundary did not extend be- yond the witty, but frivolous, cackle of the apartments of the Palace at Versailles. Sometimes she ventured to dabble in the sciences; then she was called blue stocking," and in order to sustain the assumption she read diligently technical ournals and reviews; and then gabbled about poli- 1 tics, geology, chemistry, medicine and astronomy, with the assurance of 0 Franklin, Montesquieu, Cutler, Lavol- sier Broussais or Arago. Her interest in art did not extend beyond it use in contributing to her personal embel- lishment. On the other hand, the so- cial leader of 1880 frequently had real technical knowledge; she ad- mired with / discernment and gave much of her time to the study of lit- 1 erature, music and painting to the extent thatshe sometimes became a competent writer and capable artist money, however, was the object of her worship, for to it's possession she owed the homage she received; through it alone she attained to the rank of social leader and she dis pensed favors to others only in propor- | tion as they were similarly endowed. l Spontaneous interest with her could not be aroused except in the contem- Iplation of millions. In conversation she was constantly alluding to figures, the effect of listening from, childhood to domestic discussions in, which rela- \ tive ''values" occupied a plane of the first (and only) important in the pam orarna of life. She was in constant fear of the growing wealth of com petitors, larger resources than her eli So1 leader and relegation to comparative 1 obscurity. If she purchased an ob- ject, a jewel a piece of furniture, a new equipage, it pleased only. in pro- portion to it's cost, as a means of inn pressing others with the power that money gave her.
 The grande dame of the eighteenth century never gave heed to the money value Of anything; actual coin was a stranger to her; she never touched it It was the business of her intendant to lliquidate the cost of her whims and eXtravagances; the mechanism of pay Gibson; Willis and Moran.
 ment was unknown to her. If there were inconvenience attached to this Ignorance there were compensations. Her prodigalitities circulated actual coin, which at the time had but lin- ited movement, and her benevolences were made with such unconscious heartedness that the recipients of them were spared the humiliation oi a favor grudgingly bestowed.
 Petty by nature, the grande dame of 1880 opened her purse in the exer- Icise of charity only when the act was assured of the widest publicity, ol when she needed to expend lavishly to keep abreast, of the exfgencies ot fashion. She was a vertiable Shy. lock in enforcing literally, in her flavor the clauses of a contract. If she had domestic tastes, she practised in the management of her house a parsi- mony inherited from bourgeois pro- genitors.
 Between the reign of the grand, dame of the eighteenth century anG that of her successor of 1880 French society endured under the Directory and the Consulate the rule of two other types; the one whose grace beauty, wit, warm heart and capti. fFeLllS SAoI III M OuSl4L 1uISellulLSSS of the Terror and rescued Franc from a revolutionary saturnalia anC substituted for it. brilliant fetes tc which the butchers of the Revolution resorted to fit themselves to become the courtiers of an emperior; the othe the grande dame of the empire wht died with the power which brought hel into being. She was the daughte of victory and through her manner
 and speech emanated the aroma 0 princess was rightly won for her b. a thousand acts of gallantry on tn,
 field of battle.
 Each of these ruled with joyou disregard of conventional restraints in one case there was riotous expres
 sion of freedom from the fear of i'm
 pending death; in the other the exu
 berant growth of starved plant trans planted to rich soil and fowerin! with brilliant radiance in the sun shine of prosperity.
 Not so with the grande dame O 1880, self conscious, she she sough protection in icy reserve. Rarely diC
 she know how to be familiar withou
 becoming ignoble. Arrogance an, disdain were the weapons she em ployed to humiliate those less pros
 porous than, herself; abnormally sensi tive and in constant fear that sh would be disposed as a social leade