Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-11
TROUBLES OF THE POOR RICH
LIVE UP TO AND IN MOST CASES
BEYOND INCOME.
So-Called Clipper Glasses" Have a
Hard Time to Make Ends Meet.
Necessary Extravagances.
From the London Mail.

From the London Mail.
Time was when the upper classes were
| distinguished from q lower social scale
| by the fact that they had not to work for
| their living: when families Of any social
standing would suffer the most biting
economies at home rather than let their
| sons go in for trade or their daughters be
| trained to earn an honest living; when
| one Of the ideals Of the poor-rich was to
keep up an appearance Of prosperity in
the face Of the world at all costs.
But Of late years there has been a
! steady invasion Of the commercial world
by the men and women of the upper
classes. It is no longer considered vulgar
| to work: indeed. the spirit of CONNER
| cialism is an almost inevitable sequence
| of the self-indulgence and love Of luxury
| which characterize the present day Money
| is a necessity, not for its intrinsic value.
| but for what 1t represents. The expense
| Of living nowadays is so great that unless
people are really rich for their position
| they must get money somehow. And only
! the fortunate few can be considered rich
enough not to require to consider. In
practical fashion, ways and means.
The man with E3.OON a year is poor
| man If he has to place three or four sons
in the services and provide for the same
number Of daughters. The man with
$4,000 a year may be less we'll off than
the man with s5OO. If he lives Just little
| beyond his means. He has more calls
upon him, for one thing: his charitable
subscriptions alone account for several
hundreds year. He may be the owner
Of a property composed Of farms the
rents Of which do not even cover the ex-
penses. He has a big house and large
staff of outdoor and indoor servants. and
lives in a neighborhood where hunting
and shooting cost a good deal of money.
The result is that he Is a poor-rich man
in the sense that he has very little mar
gin for emergencies.
Modern Extravaganza.
Entertaining is on lavish scale nova
days. The scale of diet is enormous COM
pared with the early Victorian era, when
we are told on competent authority,
shooting luncheon of bread and cheese
and beer was quite the usual thing. Fifty
years ago white muslin ball dresses were
the correct wear for debutantes of the
best families in the land. Elaborate dress
ing was regarded as vulgar by the very
families whose descendants spend sew
eral hundreds a year per head on their
clothes. Nowadays the girls dress almost
as extensively as the married women,
and even the children are arrayed in
costly simplicity.
So the money has to be forthcoming
somehow. Those who have not got 1t
must make it either as fashionable milli-
ners dressmakers or florists. or in the
more lucrative calling OF social guide to
aspiring climbers of the social ladder.
The calling of guide. philosopher and
friend to wealthy American tradespeope
is a particularly lucrative one. But 1t is
by no means the sfnecure which 1t may
appear on superficial observation. The
poor rich" indeed often work very hard
for living. 1t Is no easy matter to
teach an American woman how to dress.
talk. walk and entertain as II to the man
ner born: to procure invitations to the
right houses and successfully to steer her
and her family beyond the rocks of social
mistakes into the safe waters of an as
sured position.
OF less harassing description is the
work associated with procuring orders for
grateful tradespeople. Most smart dress
makers have one or two customers of the
poor rich persuasion. who receive a
commission for every client they in
troduce to the business. Mrs A brings
Lady b to her dressmaker, who sells the
new customer half a dozen expensive
frocks and sends a lace blouse or scarf
or underskirt to Mrs. for her recon-
mendation. If a woman is smart enough
and pretty enough and cute enough she
can dress well on practically nothing if
she has definite understanding with
her dressmaker about orders And the
same principle can be applied 20 other
tradespeope by the clever woman who
has an expensive position and expensive
tastes and an insufficient income.
Paying Guests.
Even in the country the spirit of max
ing of earning money in order to keep
in the swim, is permeating the different
classes of society. How to live up to what
one has always been accustomed to is
the great question these days. when
property has deteriorated in value and
taxation presses heavily upon the poor
rich whose unearned incomes are of a
modest description.
Then motor cars. which have come to
be considered necessity in the country.
entail certainly more expensive up
keep" than the family wagonette, the
brougham, or the four wheeled dogcart
any of which can be picked up nowadays
for a ten-pound note. So paying guests
are introduced and provided with all the
pleasures of country-house life for a
financial consideration The woman who
has social aspirations beyond the sphere
she was born to can experience high life
above stairs if she is willing to pay three
or four guineaS week for the privilege
of dressing for late dinner and having her
claret served by somebody else's butler.
Then the garden is made to pay by
selling the vegetables. fruits and flowers
at the nearest country town. Or a sort
of private nursery is managed by the
gardener. who sells his surplus bedding
out plants, his cuttings and seeds at mar
ket prices In days of old the big house
of the neighborhood was expected to pro-
vide garden produce for its poorer neigh
bors Today the rich man declares he is
impoverished by taxes and can hardly
provide for himself and his family. He
can do it only by "economizing'' To re-
duce his expenses is a difficult matter
when he is the owner of place which.
at the very least, requires six indoor serv-
ants. two gardeners and stable servants
as well. The only way is to make the
garden pay for itself as much as possible.