The Washington herald., 1908-01-08
The Suffering Rich.

These be parlous times and hard times.
as well, The financial stringeney Is
pinching, sometimes almost strangling
There are. of course, a few million opti-
mists in the country who assert to the
contrary, but il is obvious to any intelli-
gent and discriminating observer that
they have only to study the superficial as
poets of the existing conditions to ascer-
tain how materially they err.
Take the matter Of diamonds, for exam
pie, Customs statistics just compiled show
that in 1907 the importations of these
ana other precious stones. and pearls
fell off 81, 100000 as compared with 1906
and that most of the loss occurred in the
last quarter of the year. when the money
tightness was at its Eghtest Think what
this means! Consider the awfulness of
being deprived Of one of the bare neces-
sites of fashionable life. like diamonds!
II this statement of the appalling condi-
tiOns now in evidence is not convincing,
We can cite proof from other quarters
For instance, a writer in the current Sat
urday Evening Post describing the grind
ing effects of the hard times in New
York, gives some specific instances Of suf-
ferins which must wrench even the fiinti-
est of hearts and bring tears to eyes that
have long been dry. Hear him:
There are psople in New York-Ieople always
considered ricil-who have cut down their staff Of
man servants from the usual number 70 three or
four only; and it is whispered that there is wel-
known and fashionable house In East Seveuty-sec-
0ud street where an unfortunate English butler Is
working gle-handed, without a second man. II
is certain that Mr.. Y, the widow Of a great
PittsbuTg magnate with a town house Gn New
York. u course. not Pittsburgh. a place AZ New
port. and one on Long Island is only keeping up
three motor cars at present And II is uuqHes
tionabe that the other evening in East Fiftysecoud
street-of course. not in the very smartest part;
in fact. rather near Lexington avenue-theFe was
dinner party Of ten-without champagne"
And this is not the worst, either A
young Englishman soioUning in the me-
tropolis whose complete fortune was swal-
lowed up in the maelstronl-We regret 10
say that the Saturday Evening Post writer
does not designate the size OF the fortune
was reduced TO the extremity Of moving
from the St. Regis 10 the Gotham, after
having been refused small loan by a
lady whom he had met casually at a tea
A society leader playing hostess to some
friends at luncheon in one OF the palatial
cafes on Fifth avenue. gazed pensively
out into the street. where her electric
brougham was waiting 10 convey her
home after the function, and sadly con-
fessed that she had found If necessary to
eccnomize-on eggs. Another woman con-
ided to bosom friends that she and her
husband had suffered financially with the
rest, and that it would be necessary for
them TO cut down expenses in order to
make it possible to have even a small
cottage at Newport next summer. So
She had planned 10 spend the winter in a
modest little apartment in Paris and then
motor down the Rhone valley and exist a
month or so on the Riviera before going
to Carlsbad for a few weeks preparatory
to returning to these shores. Only by the
exercise Of this rigid economy can the
summer at Newport be assured.
other cases just as bad might be cited,
but We do not wish unnecessarily 20 har-
row up the feelings of our readers. We nave
already said enough to confound the silly
people who insist that there is no strin-
gency, and no suffering as a result there
,of.