The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-26
GOTHAM GOSSIP

WI eItlIvI VOOVIl
 (By Francis Phillips, Copyright, 1910
 by the National News Service, New YOrk.)
 New York. January 26.-Brains
 and not money, says Frederick Town send Martin, New York's most popu- lar bachelor, is the principal passport to the inner circles of Gotham so-
 clety. AS an illustration of the dis
 on the mere accumulation of money
 and it's vulgar display, MT. Martin
 adds that an income of $1,20O a year
 is sufficient to maintain one who es- [ says to move in the hallowed circles 1 wherein all that is conceived to be so- c1ally desirable takes place. For some years MT. Martin, who is the eldest son of the late Bradley Martin, has i occupied here the same position with
 respect to society that the late Ward
 MeAlilStsr Me Al S5ns held Iao generation @ ago
 and determined the social status of
 all aspirants for fashable recognition. i He is in demand everywhere at all of l the smartest functions held in town
 and is deferred to on all important | McAllister. His statement concern
 ing brains being primary qualification
 for social success was provoked by
 the publication of a cablegram from London imputing to Mrs. Asquith, wife of the English premier, an as-
 was usually the finest passport to the
 highest society.
 Mrs. Asquith couldn't have said such thing" said Mr. Martin yes- terday, it is direct reversal of the
 truth. Instead of being a passport | to society, extravagant spending is an indelible black mark against the l spender. It is like the line they used to write on the passports of French criminals discharged from the gall leys. ''This man is dangerous.' The man or woman wantonly throwing away money, unwillingly hangs a pla- 1 card around his or her neck bearing | just that sentence.
 Not cost, but taste" he continued. That is the cry of society to-day. We l have learned that beauty and pleas ure do not depend on pocket-books but on plan.
 ''The people who are really the best people possess simple and refined tastes. When they see climbers giv- ing eXtravagant entertainments they are not attracted but are repelled They shrink from the loudness, the vulgarity, the splendor that is really discomfort. And they laugh.
 Neither are the dinners monu
 
 to be a generation or so ago." =
 Then frequently we sat at the ta- ble for two, sometimes even for three hours. During that interminable period the most expensive foods and wines were being sent around. and, of course, frequently sent away untouch- ed. Digestion was limited, if dol lars were not.
 'Now, all that is changed.
 .I assure you that money is simply not considered in the counting of so- cial assets. On $5,O00 a year, yes, on a quarter of that sum, a man or wo- man can afford the best society-pro- vided he or she has brains to be well comed there. That is what really unts-intelligence, taste. magnetism personality, all the characteristics that the clever person possesses"
 "But do you mean that woman can go into society on the small in- come you mention ?" I questioned. "A man can do many things with one dress suit, but woman's gowns" all functions" he asserted blandly. eff only she carries a wise head amove it. When people are making up dinner parties they don't weigh their guests from the cash standpoint, but from that of charm. They want men and women who will make the occasion a felicitous one with their nversation-checks are not request edi"
 For hissing four s1anderous words into her ear as they were entering church together, Mrs. Naomi Dun combe Ring, who is accredited with having an estate worth million or more must pay Miss Grace Raymond, the pretty former secretary of her her by a jury this week On pre- vious trial of the case another jury gave the plaintiff verdict of S2,000 for each hateful wOrd-$8,000 alto gether-but the defendant managed to have it set aside on an allegation that she had since found letters sup porting her accusation against the secretary. Mrs. Ring, who is 7OI years old startled her friends in 1901 by 1narrying Ring, who was at that made him manager of theatre which she had inherited from her first husband. While he was en- gagged in that capacity she became convinced that he was. taking too keen an interest in his secretary. The each other one Sunday morning goin to vnurUn. Mrs. Ring walked up to the secretary, caught her gently by the arm and hissed her opinion of her into the young woman's ear. Miss Raymond promptly began suit for damagese Friends of the aged wo- man say she became unduly jealous of her husband and his secretary without cause and made herself un- necessarily unhappy thereby.
 It is to laugh. With the hope of cutting short the gay career of the | merry benedict who stalks abroad | on the open highway as an unkissed i son of single blessedness, a new cult | known as the Cupid Wing Club has | asked that bill be enacted by the | legislature compelling all married | men to wear wedding rings as marks of identification. Married women | wear them, naively suggests the apos- ties of the cult; why not the men? | Too many of the sterner sex they say are masquerading about making pro miscuous love to every woman they | meet, under the pretense or assump tion of their victims that they are single. The proposition to tag these straA black sheep and make them to regulation has awakened | much heated and some amusing dis cussion about town as to the opera ton of such a law should it be enact ed. Some of the local wags have pointedly directed attention to the fact that the Gotham jewellers report twice as many sales of wedding rings as there are marriages here, indicat- ing that there is more truth than fic- AEN EE'z| II H ll1