Bisbee daily review., 1911-03-14
An Unfortunate Encomlun By EDWARD l1LEHART Copyrigh: by American rress Asso-
 ciatiou. lgll

would have thought of associailng 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 distinguished cor. mOdore in the navy, and my wifo's grandmother, who was celebrated New York belle The places once oc- cupied by these worthy people age now filed 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- iii a certain remark was repeated to her One of 0ur old family connec- tiops who owns g box in the "diamond borseshoe"-so called from being that gallery of the Metropolitan Opera House occupied by the mulumillion- hires gave IS the use of it for one night. The favor nearly caused our ruin. Soon after that night at the opera Gertrudes cousin. who gave us the box, said Co my wife:
 '-The Earl of Chappertou, recently from London, asked me who was the lady in my box on Thursday night. saying at the same time: Shes the most beautiful woman ever saw. London could not furnish anything equal to hcrT"
 The remark was not only repeated to my wife. but was talked about at ev- cry function he'd by the golden set It finally came to Gertrude. added to in this wise: What a pity that Airs. Van Valkcnbu-g doesn't take the po- sition in society that haIf a century ago was occupied ly her grandmother the beautiful Betty Van Wyke"
 From that moment my dear wife got the society boo ia her bonnet "Ou family has always kept up ia the world iil the present generation" ," she said "We have S10O00 a year. ana on that we could get on in society. Connections of ours in the swim would introduce rs. and our especial associ- ates would be of ;he older aristocratic set who are not so rich as these new commercial people
 My dear. ! protested "Our S1o.GoC income would not keep us in the swim a month
 Not with your management" she retorted, but q woman can always make money go further than man. Let nc try. will show you what I can do
 Like 8 fool I was persuaded Ny wife Lad TO trouble in penetrating the so-iety s5irlish line because of the rc!nari. of the Earl Of Cha?uc-ton, which was on every 0uc's li-s She re cclved number of iuvit1lous. but foCnc that sEe must make consider abse outlay for costumes before she could accept any of them. And since thc costumes she must rival cost all the way from several hundred Co scv- eral thousand dollars. and she must have different costume for each function. inc amount soon ran up to g third of our total income. Since our ordinary necessary expenditures re quired the ether two-thirds. it was eyi- 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 lu1uries that must be provided by people of fashion One dinner alone we felt obliged to give cost us $500. and 1t was considered plain at that
 We permeated Inc 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 number of the wives of young muitimiilionsires who had married actresses. aisi my wife had discovered | that society was not composed of such ] persons as Ter grandmother had shone among. Then something happened that called a halt 10 our advance.
 X certain. Mrs. Van Yalkenburg. whose inco.ne was some S2.G00.O0O a year and who vas as homely as Q hedge fence, caused it 10 De given cut
 for a consideration. the price being invitations Co certain social climbers to her soirees-that a mistake had bcen made in reporting Earl Chappertoa' s remark as to the most beautiful wcm- m in New York The Mrs. Van Val kenburg referred to was the lady with the S2.OO9CC0 income
 Everybody sneered. but as all uD derstood that to gainsay this edict would cost them the onmity of one of the most powerful women in New York society Is5 one dared to lisp a word to the contrary. The earl had returned 10 England and was not to be even questioned on the subject. The moment his iordship's compliment was appropriated by another my wife ceased to be al. object of curiosity and. as she had no other claim tO be admitted to society. was dropped Bc- sides. any further attention to her was sure to be resented by the other Mrs Van Valkenburg
 When the battle was over I discov cred that we had eaten upon our cap. ital sufficiently fo reduce our income one-half. I was thankful that we were beaten oh before all was exhausted
 When my wife grumbles aI the haiv- ing of our income never mention tho cause hare a regard for the tuft Of hair on the top of ny head.