The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-10-30
CALLING INTO
- THE SMART SET
Two Recipes for Getting Into
Society-The Lure That
Wins Friends.


woman who was reading the Sunday .
paper IN the piazza - the Westchesfer 4
house. MARY certainly knows how 60
get where she wants TO 90. She's just |
about one Of the sinaTts~t women know ,
She goes everywhere. How do you sup !
pose she manages itg'
The other woman 90 whom she com |
municated The item Of social news took /.
even more interest in II than she mani !
tested. BIT she answered merely 10y a
grtmt Of comprehension.
i know that Jack RiseT doesn't make
any more money downtown than WIN ,
the first speaker went on. and Mary !
herself had only about g. O0o year from /
her father. OF course they never close
their town house In summer and just
20 about from one place 20 another. |
They never take n place IN the country, |
for instance. and you know how tina:
costs.
But they do the thingr that really
show. They go 10 Europe for q month
in the spring or the fell. they are always
at Nswport for n while and then they
turn up - you see now A. Lenox.
yet they are never in hotels when
they are in this country. Somebody
always invites her
MARY has no children for one thing
was the first response from her com
panion -She has no worry about them.
| Then Jack - rather a good sportsman.
That helps lots.
HE rides well and Jim said he used
10 he one ot the hest tennis players OF
his day in college. Then he won the
| court tennis match last winter at the
club That makes II easy for him with
the men. Ten TO enc he's riding now
AZ I.enoS in the races
4 didn't see anything about that IN
the paper said the first speaker. scan
ming the despatch srom the Berkshire-
once NOR -Of course that does help
TO make Mary lsetter liked But she got
there herself all right and u she had not
known how 40 do II nobody could have
helped her
The thre.. girls had been az school TO-
g.ther and Mary's social iriumphs had
not served 20 separate them although
their intimacy was more or less a matter
~ IN. pas, S,ich progress il not unusual
IN this city Born all three to good social
position and Sufficient means for comfort
they had -een Mary shoot up int" that
raref..r social atmosphere into winch
neither of them had been able To follow
her Neither 81 them had tried ~ hard
Hnrhnus or fixed her mind on tn" subject
mute ~ lntenily. for II lakes both am
hitton and enthusiasm to get into That
particular corner Of the social world
II - a curious world not made Ip al
together of wealth. although wealth per
hapS supplies the easi'-t means ~ en-
francs. 10 n, not IN the least in-isi"n' on
the right of birth. although that - also
an element IN III makeup. and indifferent
70 reaI intellectual merit Vet that par
t,cIlar set ~ Iusl now N the ascendant IN
every large city ami Iism most conSpIcuolsty
successful member- ara cosmopolitan.
There - a frcamasonry among thorn
which makes them cordial 90 on" another
! ,n the most altrIistiC spirit Of helping on"
another - long a. all stand m equal
favor But 10 the climber 4 few r'nZs
lower down on IN" ladder or 10 on"
who has been thrown out ~ grac" al
toeether and ceIsei any longer 20 he
smart there il none Of this cordially ~
manner There Is ON the other hand
rather fierce resentment against such un-
fort innate people
This was the little act into which Mary
Riser had assembled Many ~ II we're
richer than she. some were perhaps even
halter born and others were NOR" beiutI-
,I There were one or two literary and
artistic lights IN II that were assur"dly
mora brilliant But Mary was fairly we'll
representative 81 tho average
And like others her most striking 10.
'c,,liaritv was that vague quality that had
destined her to he smart. There are
.,,,a penpl.. who seem horn To he smart
and unable to escape Il, Possibly that
:, "a merely the outward and visible -igi
20 the inner ability tn strive until the gu~l
- reached let u - one ~ the perversc
o facts about smArtnes- that there are
occasional persons who achieve " w'tho,i'
IN. Isast effort And they are not AL
n ,nilbonaIrez Then there are those VIII
:. sven with ample financial backing str'Ig
ale but vet fail entirely 10 reach theft
" goal within this sacred circle.
- Th. two women who were discussing
q thatr friend rise with no particular envy
" and with no evident desire to follow h"I
YER. vaguely awar" 81 the characteristics
- this world. although neither W then
mad penetrated into ~. Yet boih had
friends who were IN the heart 81 that sci
e b.-idss the Ola. - whom they were talk
IA ing go ..,
- centre that n j. the hub of wheel thai
has far reaching spoke. some uI 'n'-'
!, extend ont to the families Of those who arr
u al th.. very heart 81 this fashionable spot
= although their relatives may Ice remote
from il Others extend Ia p"opl" Wh'
" have no other connection with TN" '"nir'
than friendship with peppl" ezLitlI>hro
u there. So u happens that ih"T" are lev
! New Workers ~ certain class who aT'
. not able ia one way or another to i"''l soiI'
: personal interest in the doIngS 81 thu
, httl. world
:. Il have often wondered how u u
= done .aid the woman who had referred
Ito Mary's Ascent With something Ike
y longing in her voice. What ~ the b'sS
means 81 accomplishing what people cal
; getting IN
}. -Of all the formulas that ] ever hcarC
only one seemed to oner any real chanc'
\ Of uucCeps and IL was recommended
nlso by the fact that on" could follow u
| nait without ,Osing 90 much Selt-re-feCf
| The woman who accomplished her Socth
!, ! ambit ions by exercising n had no w"alt y
She had no more money than you and ]
! She waE a stranger in New YORK tie
I purpose was MT altogether social. Hel
Ultimate aim was to help along her nus
;. band She saw that he most important
h thing she could do for him VAS to gar
y position IN the part ocular ~et that oouic
!. help him along
= sShaa an oldish woman now and NJ
longer has to struggle for anything
. Her met nod was always To have ai hn'
7 -. -. ,,ara.,n aDCially lItt u