The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-23
SOCIAL WAR In PHILADELPHIA
AL BECAUSE THE MFADDENS
ARE NOT IN THE ASSEMBLY


merry, merry NnrlStmaH Tor the
home at Nineteenth and Delaney streets.
No. the financial depression has nothing
20 do with IT,. Santa Claus has regularly
remembered the M~cFaddens for some
years now and there In excellent reason to
suppose that no McFadden stocking will
be neglected this year. But what matter
all other earthly Philadelphian joys IL
one Ia not included in THE PHILADELPHIA
ASSEMBLIES? And, on. woe. it now appears
certain that this year at least the McFad-
dens will not be invited.
Meaning principally Mrs. J. Franklin
McFadden and her d6butante daughter.
Miss Katharine Hynson McFadden. J.
Franklin McFadden himself must be reck-
oned with. of course. but he il only the
man behind tho dough. Everybody in
Philadelphia knows all about the McFad-
dens. OF course. but for the benefit of those
benighted souls who have the bad taste to
live elsewhere il ought 70 be said that j..
FRANKLIN is a son of George H.. who has
made millions in cotton.
But the McFadden ancestors were not as
shrewd and far seeing as their descendants.
In fact. the Mctadden forefathers made a
pretty had break. Not one of them had the
foresight away back in the hum
dreds to forget all else and cleave alone
unto the ASSEMBLIES. In fact, il now APP
pears that not until the present generation
did any McFPdden ever appreciate the really
vital importance of such a move. But they
appreciate it now. There is no doubt OF
that. And for two years the moss grown
gates have been ~shuddering under the
sturdy blows of McFadden fists. But
there's pretty stout stun in those gates.
They may have shuddered, but they haven't
fallen mp to date.
Writing from Philadelphia, it comes
pretty hard to hav to explain about the
ASSEMBLIES. But since needs must, here
goes:
To put it mildly then, YOU might as well
he dead rs to live in Philadelphia and not
be in the ASSEMBLIES. You might just as
we'll go and throw your feeble, Ineffective
body into the river and nave lone with il.
To be sure. there are only about 800 per-
sons who are IN and at the last census there
were l.293, 6O7 persons er-existing in this
town, leaving a total of 1,2O2, 1877 who are
IT. It's hard to see why they all keep
going. but deep hidden in each human
breast is found the instinct TO live-or some
such thing. It's one Of the insoluhle mys-
teries Of creation, maybe. OF course, the
case OF the MCFaddens is different. They
still have hopes, but as for the est well,
it's a puzzier.
So, as we were saying, the ASSEM- BLIEs
got going in l7is and with the exception Of
the years Of the Revolutionary fighting and
three or four moro years IN the early part
OF the last century they've been going ever
since. And those that are IN are IN and
those that are OUT are OUT and very much
OUT. at that.
Because. you see, only the most extraor-
binary combination Of circumstances will
get you IN II none Of your progenitors WAS
IN before you. OF course IL sometimes
happens That some person whose great
great-great-grandfather used TO throw
dollars across the Potomac River with
George Washing ton and who hadn't pre-
viOusly lived in Philadelphia makes np his
mind for some obscure reason 20 come 10
reside here. Occasionally, IL these persons
seem TO be such IA would sufficiently value
the oOndescenslOn. they are admitted.
Again, II one OF the male ms marTies an OUT
she rs also admitted. but H. is pleasant TO
say that this sort Of thing happens very,
very seldom. On the other hand, If one Of
the feminine ms should display such in
credible taste as TO marry an OUT she ~
consigned to outer darkness.
al the case Of the Wainwright brothers.
Clement Reeves Wainwright married the
daughter Of Thomas F.. Dixon. More
over. was her mother one Of the Biddles
or wal she not? Also, she liz a niece OF A.
j. Dallas Dixon, who, as everybody knows,
In a manager Of the ASSEMBLIES.
Now, there IL "a saying in Philadelphia
that II you offend a Dixon you offend $40.
Moreover, her mother was a Biddie, Did
Mrs. Clement Reeves Wainw right get I'M?
Oh, don't be foolish.
But as for Mrs. Francis King Wainwright
well. that's another story. Francis King
Wainwright Is a brother Of Clement Reeves.
lie married a daughter of United States
Senator Foraker of Ohio. Her mother
was NOT "A Biddle. Nor was she related
10 the DiXons. Is she still OUT? She is.
But TO get back to the assemblies. It's
like saying that two and two are four, but
anyhow. we're in for 1t now and so let It, be
said that the first one wasdanced on Andrew
Itamilton's Wharf. Later on they were
danced at the Water Street Tavern. the
State House, the Musical Fund Hall. in the
Shakespeare Building and the Academy
of Music, the latter place holding the Loa,G
for a half century or so.
The history Of the has not
been entirely peaceful. Whenever anything
happened that hadn't happened at all the
preceding there was always
a prodigiOus uprOar. When the managers
decided to abolish the standup supper and
have the repast eaten at small tables there
was a row hat threatened the very exist
ence of the function. The elder members
all said that IL just showed how things
were going IT you didn't keep a tight hand
on the young folks they were sure to make
n mess Of IL. But for all that the radicals
triumphed again two years ago, when they
decided to desert the Academy of Music
and hold the ASSEMBLIES at the Bellevue
StTatford. where they rave since made
their headquarters.
And there is still cited by way Of horrible
warning TO the radicals OF to-day the case
Nf Miss Polly Richie. who in 1900 or some
thing created "A scandal at one of the AS
gEMBLIES by standing up in a set that
was not her own
But though such epoch making innova-
tons as these have greatly alarmed the
conservatives the future Of the ASSEMBLIES
looks fairly safe. You see, the committee
Of management and eligibility is a self
p~erpetuating body. IL chooses its own
Successors whenever il thinks il wants any.
There aren't any campaigns from the dis
satisfied or anything Troublesome like
that. In fact, it's a limitless Oligarchv,
and the only effective protest possible is
TO get out, and. we'll, some die-a few
but none resigns.
Tradition rules here as nowhere else,
and there still prevails the law that existed
when the daughter Of Squire Hillegas left
the elect involuntarily about the year 1887.
The records state that Miss Hillegas sac
rificed all for love when she married "an
extensive jeweller and goldsmith in High
street" hat finished Miss Hillegas. She
fooE har aWtanaiga UoldaNnith and Ionarfod