Bisbee daily review., 1911-03-08
| married an unconscious beauty

NOW. every hltOhc NhtAe RNHNAs if 1t is unconscious is a very nice thing, but as soon as it becomes con scious it breeds vanity, and vanity is the mother of large brood of troubles. My wife and myself-we are both Vans belong to the older aristocraey of New York. None of our ancestors would have thought of associating ! with the ancestors of persons who are now in the swim and to whose circle we were not admitted They care nothing about our ancestors, though many of them have heard of my fa- [ ther, who was a distinguished com modore in the navy, and my wife's 1 grandmother, who was a celebrated i New York belle The places once Oc- cupied by these worthy people are now filled with the descendants of those who sold them oysters and fish and whose wealth runs away up into | the millions
 But my wife and I were happy un- | til a certain remark was repeated to her. One of our old family connec- | tions who owns a box in the diamond | uOTSttupt -SO DEAhk that gallery of the Metropolitan Opera House occupied by the muitimillion- afres-gave us the use of it for one night. The favor nearly caused our ruin Soon after that night at the | opera Gertrude's cousin, who gave us the box, said to my wife:
 The Earl of Chapperton. recently from London, asked me who was the lady in my box on Thursday night. saying at the same time: She's the most beautiful woman I ever saw. London could not furnish anything equal to herr"
 The remark was not only repeated to my wife. but was talked about at cv- :, cry function held by the golden set. i Ii finally came to Gertrude, added to in this wise: What pity that Mrs. Van Yalkenburg doesn't take the po- sition in society that half a century ago was occupied by her grandmother. the beautiful Betty Van wyke."
 From that moment my dear wife got the society bee in her bonnet Our family has always kept up in the world till the present generation" she sald. We have S10.OO0 year. and on that we could get on in society Connections of ours in the swim would introduce us. and our especial associ- ates would be of the older aristocratic set who are not so rich as these new commercial people"
 My dear" I protested, "our S1O.0O0 income would not keep IS in the swim month";
 Not with your management" she retorted, "but a woman can always make money go further than a man. Let me try. I will show you what I can do."
 Like a fool I was persuaded. My wife had no trouble in penetrating the society skirmish line because of the remark of the Earl of Chapperton, which was on every ones lips. She re ceived a number of invitations, but found that she must make consider Able ou1ay for costumes before she could accept any of them. And since the costumes she must rival cost all the way from several hundred to sev- eral thousand dollars. and she must have a different costume for each function, the amount soon ran up to q third of our total income. Since our ordinary necessary expenditures re- quired the other two-thirds, it was evi- dent we would soon run upon the rocks. But what is the one matter of a woman's costumes, expensive though they be, compared with the thousand and one other luxuries that must be provided by people of fashion. One
 dinner alone we felt obliged to give cost us $500, and it was considered plain at that.
 We permeated the outer social line and were making some headway into the inner circle. We were both disap- pointed in discovering that we must be civil to q number of the wives of young
 muItimilliOnaires who had married
 actresses, and my wife had discovered
 that society was not composed of such persons as her grandmother had shone
 nmong. Then something happened
 that called halt to our advance. : A certain Mrs. Van Valkenburg
 whose income was some s2,OO0.OO0 a | year and who was as homely as a hedge fence. caused it to be given out for a consideration. the price being 2 | invitations to certain social climbers to
 her s0irees-that a mistake had been made in reporting Earl Chappertons
 remark as to the most beautiful wom-
 an ia New York. The Mrs. Van Val
 kenburg referred to was the lady with the S2,OOO,O00 income.
 Everybody sneered, but as all un-
 derstood that to Gainsay this edic'
 would cost them the enmity of one of the most powerful women in New
 York society no one dared to lisp word to the contrary. The earl
 had returned to England and was moi to be even questioned on the subject
 The moment his lordship's compliment was appropriated by another my wife . ceased to be an object of curiosity ' and. as she had no other claim to he | admitted to society. was dropped Be y sides, any further attention to her was sure to be resented by the other Mrs ' Van Valkenburg.
 y When the battle was over I discov
 cred that we had eaten upon our cap
 ital sufficiently to reduce our income one-half. I was thankful that we wer.