Detroit evening times., 1945-11-18

7R~HE social climber is so much a stock figure Of
comedy in song and story, on the stage and
y screen that the World and His Wife seldom if
ever glimpse the envelopng tragedy in which many
a climber plays out his role the last sad chapter
and the final, bitter curtain
But the tragedy of the social climber is as ole
Society a tragedy repeating itself with monoto
nous regularity from generation TO generation. Only
the details vary with each case Society is studded
with the tragedies of socially ambitious and
women who have sacrificed everything in a vain
attempt to forge to the top of the social ladder.
In the end, her social ambitions cost Ellen Bal
lcntine Kendall Roberts her health, happiness, hus
band and finally life itself.
Although Nellie Kendall as she was first known
to New York Society, has been dead more than 20
years, the -Four Hundred still remember with some
thing like awe the millions She scattered in her
futile attempt TO climb into society that would
have none of her
Like female Lochinvar. Nellie came out of the
West, the Golden West Of fact and fiction For
Nellie grew up in Boise, Idaho almost 5000 miles
away from the social citadel she longed TO conquer
Her father was successful banker and onetime
governor of Idaho. Neie's only contact as a young
girl with the Goulds, AstOrS and VandeTbts she
longed to know through the Sunday supple
mcntS. But she pored over these in secret.
Certainly Nellie seemed no nearer her secret
goal when she married Lyman Bowles Kendall in
Boise after the end of the Spansh-AmeriCan War.
He a handsome man and thanks to the influ-
of his wifcs father, he obtained some lucrative
government contracts that enabled himto prove his
ability as engineer.
But il was not until Kendall began reading the
financial pages of the New York newspapers TO
WhCh ms pretty vile subscribed Tor their social
content. that unconSciouSly the way was paved
for Nellie 10 Try her social wings in New York
Through those financial pages Kendall began
playing the New York stock market with an un.
canny skill and success. Obvious OF Nellics
mfatuation with a Society she had never seen. Ken.
dali suggested they move 10 New York where he
could really Try his skill in finance.
1t was the opportunity of which his Nellie had
dreamed for years With alaClity, she packed their
larCs and pcnatcs With JOY, she faced the city of
her Reconsideration YeIll-=
If only Kendall had had the good fortune to lose
his nCstcgg in Wall Street, perhaps Nellie would
have been spared the tragedy that cngulfcd her
But the man from Idaho proved statistical wizard
and speculative genius In the early days of
World War l. the Kendall fortune was estimated at
S20000000 and Older hands in Wall Street spoke his
name with respect and awe.
NELLIE had the good sense not to try Newport
~ the toughest social NJ of them all 10 crack But
she dssailed Bar Harbol, My shade less snootv
summer resort for the rich and ritly. Despite
the squanderng of fortune a summer
home, Bar HaIbOr would have none of Nellie either
BY this time. Lyman Kendall fed up with
NcllieS social ambitions and with the persons who
filled his homes, ate his food and bored him stiff
Nellie had adorcd the handsome young man she
had married in -I}ei-e It Net-Yorft, con.
fused by her ambitions and still determined to crash
NOvcmbcr IN. 1853