The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-08-13

This little company of wealthy, fashion
able, select Americans made Newport,
they were Newport, and the place had
a flavor quite different from any other
in the country, and unique in its way.
OF course these people couldn't pre-
vent other wealthy people from build
ing palaces there, nor from driving
around in their magnificent equipages
over the roads which they had some
how regarded as their private property,
nor from appearing at the public places
they had been wont to frequent. But
as soon as Newport filled up with
these undesirables its old charm fed
for the original residents, and what
Mrs. Fish says is probably true, that
this latter class will now probably take
themselves off somewhere else.
The janitor of a large apartment
house occupied mostly by French fami-
lies says that it is pity our American
families in moderate circumstances
couldn't take lesson from them in
economy. While he believes they all
live very well indeed, for he sees plenty
of packages received from the baker,
butcher. fruit seller, grocer, etc, and
well-filled market baskets delivered, yet
nothing ever leaves their apartments in
the way of garbage except coffee
grounds, potato skins anG tomato cans.
Having lived before in apartment
houses occupied by Americans, and ae-
customed to seeing the great amount of
food discarded by each family daily,
the remarkable economy and wonder
full management of these French people
has impressed him greatly, and he real
ICES how much less suffering there
would be in this country If our poor
people could only be given a few les
sons in practical housekeeping by the
clever French. There is no doubt that
most families throw away every day
enough good food to keep many poor
family from starvation, and that many
poor family Starves because they do
not know how to get a good meal out
of little or nothing, as the French do.
The French are a tickle people, as
extravagant in their praise at one time
as they are bitter in their condemna-
ton at another Nothing shows this
better than their treatment of Napoleon
l., whom they worshiped as god when
at the zenith of his power and glory
and whom, when his star forsook him
and the tickle goddess Fortune turned
her back upon him, they cast off like
an old shoe. Poor Eugene, the once
beautiful and apparently loved En-
press, is tasting the bitterness of this
National characteristic. AS the wife of
Napoleon III. her appearance on the
streets or at any public place was greet
ed by noisy acclamations of joy and
admiration. Now she comes and goes
unnoticed. Much of her time is spent
or her estate in England, but Paris,
beautiful, tickle Paris, the scene of her
early triumphs. calls to her irresistibIy,
and the early Summer usually finds her
| in her hotel near the TuiIeries, which is
so full of happy and painful memories
| for her. One almost wonders that she
4 can bear to look upon this palace, which
must speak to her so eloquently of her
| first entrance under its walls as the
proud Empress of the French, and of
that hasty final exit under the protec-
ton of the American dentist, DIR. Evans.
Eugene still shows marks of that great
| beauty of face and figure which distin-
| guished her as young matron, and
/ she still has many good friends in Paris.
| But as she drives along its splendid
streets in her simple equipage,, on her
way to church or elsewhere, dressed in
| her widows weeds, she attracts no at
| tention whatever. Do the glad shouts
of The Empress," 1.-THE Empressl"
| still ring in her ears as she looks out
upon the passing crowd with the digni-
| fed demeanor of royalty? Alas! who
can say? One poet tells US that the
! saddest words of life are lit might have
! BEEN" another that sorrows crown
| of sorrow is remembering happier
tHiHSs. Toof EuEeLie mas dralneu Dotn
these cups.
Mrs. Frederick w. Vanderbilt does
not care at all for society, and spends
very little time among the gay throng
at Newport or elsewhere. She is a per-
son of a good deal of artistic taste, and
isoespecially fertile in ideas of this kind.
Her latest achievement is a regular
! Japanese tea house, built on the Upper
| st. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks,
where the Vanderbilts have a camp. 1t
is perfect imitation of the dainty lit
| tie houses one sees in Japan, with its
walls of sliding panels and its floors
covered with the spotless straw mat
ting. 1t is charmingly situated on a
little point of land, thickly wooded,
commanding view of the beautiful
| lake. To carry out the idea Mrs. Van
derbilt has all the servants in the little
house dress in the picturesque but to
the uninitiated rather uncomfortable
| kimono.
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