The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-04
NEW YORK NOTES.
Interest Centers in Municipal Politics, Wall Street and the
 Exclusive Social Set
BY ANNIE KENoRIck WALKER.

While there seems such unlimited op- portunites for working off the nervous restlessness of the present day by LOOK | ing into some of the more serious prop- | lems of New York, the average NC" l Yorker confines his interests to munici- | pal politics, and to Wall street. Whle | the exclusive social set receives as much attention from the public and the news papers.
 It is said that the Presidential elec- ton does not hold one-half the dra- matic interest for the New Yorker as that which centers in municipal politics and that for intense excitement may oralty election possesses elements not found elsewhere in the whole country.
 Wall street keeps all New York at fever neat, and the maddening scenes in the stock exchange represent year after year the New York idea of money-getting "a thing that worms its way like fatal poison through the veins
 And this social life of New York-is 1t the one reaction from the political and commercial strain; is it the life of the rich one of leisure after all?
 It sounds so delightful in the papers, the country houses, the short season tn town, the gaieties of the Rye set or the West Chester set, the women who are the most popular In them, the motor Ing. the yachting, and all the rest of it. this gossip of people who really know what to do with their money.
 Long ago the New York papers ceased to refer to any one woman as leading society for since the days of Ward Mc- Aister, New York society has adjusted itself on wholly new lines.
 New York has grown too large for any distinct social leader" Is what Miss L. Graham Crozier said in her Fifth Avenue apartments, on her return from Rye, where she has private classes among some of New York's most exclus- i've and wealthiest women.
 Mrs. Astor's regime is naturally a thing of the past" she continued, "be- cause of her age, for one thing, and be- cause New York society is made up of several sets in which younger women are leading. With the death of Mrs. Paran Stevens a few years ago, and l should say of Ward McAlster society has grown less dependent upon what is termed leadership"
 Miss Crozier, who possibly more than any Southern woman now residing in the metropolis, Is personally known to the women whose social positions are pre-eminent in New York. declares that the New York of today cannot really boast of any reigning beauty, that no one woman is the rage in society. all though some of the most beautiful wom- en in America reside In New York, not ably Mrs. Stuyvesant Wainwright, who was Miss Snowden of Philadelphia. and regarded by many people as the hand somest woman in New York
 Mrs. John Henry Hammond" said Miss Crozier. lis one of the beauties of New York. She is the granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt, whose daughters, Mrs. Sloan. Mrs. Shepherd, Mrs. Twom- ley, Mrs. Webb. are among the most n- teresting and charming women In so- ciety.
 Another beauty in the Vanderbilt family is Mrs. Davis Hennen Morris. who was Miss Shepherd, and in fact, all Of the Vanderbilt family are noted for their beauty. The Duchess of Marlbor- ough and young Gladys Vanderbilt. .the latter the daughter of Cornelius Wander bilt have the family good looks. None of the Vanderbilt women, I mean the Sloans and Twomleys. or the Shepherds, have ever been criticised in a way that some of the women in New York society are talked about. There has never been a breath of scandal of any kind, al- though they are beautiful and admired and popular. The social positions which they occupy are pre-emnent and they are positions of great dignity because of the attitude of each woman in the im- mediate Vanderbilt family.
 Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and her young daughter, Gladys Vanderbilt, re- side in the fine old mansion in Fifty eighth street. and the double Vanderbilt houses in Fifth Avenue are the property of Mir. George Vanderbilt. who spends so much of his time at Biltmore. He has leased his Fifth Avenue house to the Tricks. who promise to be conspicuous figures in New Yorks exclusive set.''