The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-21
CChicago Record-Herald.)

1
THE American Smart Set and 'Fads
and Fancies' were to get for their
money None of "Fads and Fancies"
mas been printed, although the sub
lScrlPuon list begun four years ago has
| been closed for twelve months. Only
one chapter of The American Smart
Set has actually been printed. There
were 20 be twenty in all. Subscribers
TO the latter work esca ped with the
payment Of $3.50 TO zoo per book,
while the other work cost its victims
$1,000 TO $40. 000
''rhe Smart Set subscribers. there
fore, not only have the advantage of
the gullibles with "Fads and Fancies"
by several hundred or thousand dollars,
put they have the ineffable joy of read
ing some wishy-washy effusions about
Newport and its inhabitants.
That this literary chef d'oeuvre now
has come out into the light of publicity
IS chiefly due to the indiscretion of
solicitor who carelessly mixed up the
analrs OF Wall street broker with
beautiful blonde charmer who wears
white slippers with red heels and pat
ent leather tips.
Apparently Americas Smart Set"
consists OF houses, dogs and yachts,
for these are practically all the Illus
trations contained In the chapter Har-
~ Lehr'S monkey does not appear so
it is assumed that he has no red heels
TO hide.
Here you have some excerpts from
it. and remember it only costs you
from $25O to $1,00o-or maybe a pair of
red-heeled sIippers-to get in:
In the blazoning of the Newport
cottagers' 'armorial bearings or an
argent are the most conspicuous tine
lures. With a hundred million dollars
invested in the construction and adorn-
SIM 1r11e- ,ale - IA
deed be anomalous If the glitter of gold
and. the sheen of silver were not of
paramount prominence. And yet, de-
spite this sometimes obtrusive DOM
nance Of wealth, this emphasizing of
fortune, Newport is wonderfully free
from ostentation that is described as
vulgar.
For a brief season each year it is
the nome of perhaps the most intelli-,
gent and cultivated summer colony TO
be found in all this wide land.
"One wonders at times if the all
powerful genii Of the Arabian Nights
could have accomplished more than
have our resourceful American Alad-
dins, who, by touching the lamp of
glittering gold, have produced what
seems veritable dream city by the
sea of maguidcence rivaling the IA
bled cities of legend and romance. 1t
is not surprising, therefore, that the
casual visitor to Newport is so en-
thralled by the splendor of the piano.
rama that he would scarcely express
surprise to find on some broad lawn
the bronze elephants from Cleopatra's
banquet hall spouting perfume from
their trunks
"A false idea of the Rhode Island re-
sort has gone abroad, and since 0,00O,-
OO0 people in a manner turn to the
Newport set for example and precedent
the result has been in way democrat
izing. 1t must not be forgotten how
ever, that much of the reported gall
Yanized sham and it's glittering polish
are seen only through eyes that are
green with envy.
The mood of the Newporters in the
face of criticism, just or unjust, is one
OF bravado and self-assertion, flung de-
family III the face of fruitless attempts
at rivalry"
The foregoing is what you get for
nothing. No charge is made by this
brilliant and flowery writer for his
vivid flights Of fancy, and the "AIad-
dins,' the "allpowerfuI genil," with
CleopRtra's bronze elephants spouting
perfume from their trunks" are thrown
in free to cheer you and make you
think you are getting your moneys
worth.
Right here, however, this brilliant
young author bids farewell to his poet
dollar for dollar, or perhaps TO square
up for suppressed details of blonde
chsrmers and red-heeled slippers. This
is how he does it:
I'm the roster of Newport homes that
magnificent palace, The Breakers
with a hall rising sixty-flve feet to the
roof, Is invariably named first yet il
IS scarcely more massive or gorgeous
than The Elms' of Edward J. Berwin;
the famed Marble House. owned by
Mrs. Oliver II. p. Belmont; the new
'Rosecliff' Of Mrs. Herman Oelrichs;
the two Goelet palaces on Ochre Point;
the bewitching white pile Of DR.. and
Mrs Henry Barton Jacobs or that
gorgeous new castle of the Italian re-
naissance period, Gray Crag' OF Mr.
and Mrs. John Mitchell Clark"
=
And so on through the whole list
OF millionaire cottagers. The writer
then turns to pour sweetness over the
Newport colony en- masse after this
fashion: When and why the Newport
term cottage was given to these mas
SiVe piles Of stone and marble is not
known. Governor Lawrence and George
Bancroft invariably spoke of their VII
las at Newport. but in those old days
life was a stately affair, and the words
describing It and its adjuncts were of
necessity more ponderous than those
required today.
Cottage however. is indeed mis-
nomer for these million dollar homes,
so rich I'm construction and adornment
with stairways as imposing as that Of
the opera at Paris, with alabaster pill
Jared interior balconies, bas-reiiefs
carved from Nunidian marble, frieZes
formed of onyx medallions, and walls
hung with Gobelin tapestries embel-
liShed and furnished. In fact with