Bisbee daily review., 1911-03-18
An Unfortunate EncCmlum By EDWARD ICLEHART Copyright bv American Press Asso-
 c,asi0u. i.tL

if it is unconscious is very nice thing. but ss soon as it becomes con scious it breeds vanity. and vanity is the mother of a large brood-of troubles. My wife and myself-we are both Vans-belong to the older aristoeraey of New Yors. None of our ancestors would have thought of associauins 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 grandmother, who was a celebrated New York belle. The places o2ce oe cupied by these worthy people are 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- til a certain remark was repeated to her One of our old family cOnnec- tions who owns q box in the diamond horseshoe"- called from being that gallery of the Metropolitan Opera House occupied by the multlmillion- aires-eave 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 herT"
 The mark was not only repeated to my wife but was talked about at ey- cry function held by the golden set, It finally came to Gertrude. added to in this wise; What a pity that Mrs. Van V9lkenburg 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 1 the society bee in her bonnet. "0ur family has always kept up in the world till the present generation" she Said. We have S1o,Oc0 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 l commercial people"
 My dear" I protested. tour Sl0,o00 l income would not keep US in the swim | q month"
 Not with your management" she i retorted, but a woman can always
 make money go further than a man. ] Let me try will show you what | can do"
 ] Like a fool I was persuaded. My | wife had no trouble in penetrating the ! society silirInish line because of the remark of the Earl of Chappcrton, | which was on every ones lips. She re. | ceiyed a number of invitations, but | found that she must make consider able outlay for costumes before she ! could accept any of them. And siEce the costumes she must rival cost all the way from several hundred to scv. eral thousand dollars. and she must have a different costume for each function. the amount soon ran up to a third of our total income. Since our i ordinary necessary expenditures re | quired the other two-thirds. 1t was evi- rocks. But what is the one matter of
 a woman's costumes. expensive though
 they be, compared with the thousand ] and. one other iuxuries that must be | provided by people of fashion. One
 dinner alone we felt obliged to give
 cost us $500. and it was considered 1 plain at that. .~
 1 We permeated the outer social line I and were making some headway into l the inner circle. We were both disap- | pointed in discovef<ng-that we must be l civil 10 a number of the wives of young 1 multimillionsires who had married l actresses, and my wife had discovered 1 that society was not composed of such l persons as Ter grandmother had shone
 among Then something happened ! that called halt to our advance.
 4 certain Mrs. Van Vaikenburg
 whose income was some S2,000,000 c | year dliu NlD Nd1 as nOAttg AH
 hedge fence. caused 1t to be given out
 tor a consideration, the price being 1 invitations to certain social climbers C
 her soirees-that a mistake had beer
 made in reporting Earl Chapperton's l remark as to the most beautiful won
 an in New York The Mrs. Van Vai
 kenburg referred to was the lady
 with the S2.000.O00 income.
 Everybody sneered. but as all un derstood that to gainsay this edici
 would cost them the enmity of ono
 of the most powerful women fin New
 York society To one dared to lisr
 a word to the contrary. The earl
 had returned to England and was noi
 to be even questioned on the subject
 The moment his lordship's compliment
 was appropriated by another my wif'
 ceased to be aE object of curiosity
 and, as she had no other claim to bs
 admitted to society. was dropped Be
 sides, any further attention to her wal
 sure to be resented by the other Mrs
 Van yalkenburg
 When the battle was over I discov
 cred that we had eaten upon our cap | rTn