MARIE CORELLI ON WEALTH AND VULGARITY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1617, 25 February 1903, Page 71 (Supplement)

MARIE CORELLI ON WEALTH AND VULGARITY

Miss Marie Corelli, who has written a magazine article on the subject of ”VV eaitii and V uiganty,” says many sarcastic things and a lew unjust ones about millionaires and “the vulgarity of wealth.” iSiie pledges herself to the statement that men and women wire are admitted to Royal soejoty in England “are known to accept payment for .bringing such and such otherwise obscure persons under the immediate notice of the King.” But these days are passing away. Miss Corelli, still in her ironical vein, looks forward to the time when the 1 grace l of poverty will become a social distinction:

—The man of money will st-epnd outside the ring of this society, which is in process Of formation for the revival of the Art or intelligent Conversation and the- Cultivation of Good Manners. Ladies tvlio dress with a becoming simplicity, and who are not liable to the accusation of walking about with clothes unpaid for, will by eligible for' membership and young men who are not ashamed to emphatically decline playing cards on Sunday will be equally welcome in the select coterie. Limited means will be considered more of a. recommendation than a drawback, and visits will be interchanged among the members on the lines of unaffected hospitality, offered with unassuming friendship and sincerity. Kindness towards each other, punctilious attention to the smallest courtesies of life, unfailing chivalry towards women, and honour to men, will be the prevailing “rules” of the community, and every attempt at “show,” either in manners or entertainment, tvill be rigorously forbidden and excluded. Tlie aim of the society will be to prove the truth of the the adage that “Manners 'makytli the man,” as opposed to the modern reading, “Money makytli tlie nobleman.”