Year: 1877

I


She told him eyes" and kept he


word.


As Mrs. Marlette said afterward, how


ever, girl with Helen's advantage


should have done much better.





A Novel Directory.-A Book In which 23, 90,


of New Yorks Elite are Enrolled.


Gotham's first families have direc


terry all to themselves. 1t is called tn,


Elite Directory, and it contains 23,OOC


names. Each name In the Elite Direc


tory is supposed to represent a house


holder of good social standing. From
the ancient KnickerbOcker down to the
modern ShOddyite, all GOthamites OF
note are included. Most of the elite
live in brOwn-stOne houses, and nearly
all have their homes above Fourteenth
street and west of Third avenue. The
$4,000 hOuse-holders represent, proba-
bly,, 10000 Of the population: so start
ling as the fact may appear, though the
whole elite element took a notion tO
evaporate, or emigrate, or vanish in any
other way, New York would still be a
city of a million souls. 1t had amilliOn
and sixty thousand two years ago, and
it certainly has gained at least twenty
thousand since. But, after all, with
out the elite, it would not be much of a
metropolis. This class forms what is
called society. In its ranks are found
the principal merchants, bankers, law
yers, doctors and miscellaneous trades
men of the city. The fashionable
churches are mainly supported by it,,
and all the brilliant social events re-
ceive their lustre from it. The old fam
lilies with large estates belong to it, as
also, must say, do some new families
with no estates to speak of. A good
many of the elite have had to come
down in the world in the past three
years. There, as elsewhere, the finan-
cial pressure has been felt, and with it
the absolute need of retrenchment. If
membership in the elite depended upon
wealth alone, | am sure the ranks could
not be near so full now as they were
when Jay Cooke & Co. gave the signal
for the great panic. And l do not
think they are quite so full, either.


The object for which the Elite Die
tiOnary is published is trifie peculiar.
1t is mainly to enable tradesmen to send
out cards and circulars, or at least to
furnish the address of persons to whom
to send them. All who belong to the
elite are supposed to be desirable per-
sons to cultivate in the way of business
so this directory is published to put
business men in the way Of cultivating
them. Almost every retail dealer of
any pretensiOn to respectability sup
plies himself with and makes use of it
to solicit the custom of the elite. Oc-
casionally the elite proves to be bad
pay, and then the retail dealer feels
like tlinging his directory into the
stove; but as a rule the directory is
useful and the result of employing it is
If the dealer gets one
customer for every hundred circulars
he sends out, he does pretty well, and
/ think there are very few who do not
get one per cent. at least. The direc-
tory is sometimes consulted by society
people who want to be sure about the
of their acquaintance. When
Mrs. Brown is getting up a reception
and preparing the invitations, it is of
importance to her to know
whether the Joneses, whom she had |
thought of asking, wear the proper |
social stamp. If the Joneses are among
the favored 1900 of the elite, the mat
ter is settled at once. If their name is
not there, possibly the invitation will
not go. The directory is useful to the
habitual charity monger, who makes a
pretty good living by going about
subscriptions for this institu-
ton or that one, or begging aid for a
possible apocryphal poor family. Lists
of names are made up from it, and the
charity mOngers go on their rounds,
with the list in their pockets, and pick
up good many odd dollars. 1t is as
much their business as it is the busi-
ness of a Wall street broker to buy or
sell stocks, and, like the broker, the
charity canvasser or collector, or what
ever the name may be, must have his
Dr her commission. But, as have said
he Elite Directory is chiefly useful in
store keepers and other trades
people to solicit the custom Of those who
nave moneyto spend. 1t serves very
rood purpose in this way, at all events,
wen though the publication of it does
ook a trine like snObbcry.