THE VENEERINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1899, 13 April 1888, Page 31

THE VENEERINGS.

" Are you going to see the Veneerings tonight," asked Tom Gadabout of me, the other day, at the club. " No," I replied. "Who are they? I never heard of them before." "I had forgotten," said Tom. ''You were abroad last year when they first loomed up on I the horizon. You had better come with me to their party. It will amuse you I promise you." , "But, my dear Tom," I exclaimed, "how can I go when I am' not asked 1 " ! _ " I'll take you," he replied. "It will be all I right. Come along with me ; they will be | only too delighted to see you," . ; I hesitated some time, for it seemed anything but proper to go to a strange house in Boston in this informal way. In London it would have been quite the, thing; but here, where I was bred and brought up, it was a different matter. It was against the social, laws of Boston, laws that should no more be broken than those of the Medes and Persians. At last I decided to trust myself to the pilotage of Tom Gadabout, if for only this once. That evening, therefore, found me in the palatial residence, of Vanderbilt Veneering. I had a chance to glance at the really artistic rooms, ornamented with rare bric-a-brac, tapestry, and a few fine pictures, while we were waiting to approach our hostess. She was a splendid-looking woman, dressed in perfect taste, and' she ' greeted me with effusion, Her husband, a large, strong man,

seemed flattered aiidhonoured by my presence in his house. My head whirled, for well as I realised my own social importance, I was not accustomed to have it brought- so prominently, to the front, nor to be treated like a crowned head. ! A hurried inspection of the guests assem- [ bled only served ,to confuse me the more, for I found most of our local celebrities were present. If my greeting had been so flattering, how had the Boston lions been | treated I wondered. I caught a glimpse of a Boman Catholic priest chatting most amicably with a leading light of the Unitarian Church. Artists, poets, novelists, sculptors 1 musicians, actors, lawyers, and society men arid women were mixed in a I curious melange. I found that I knew more than half the gue3ts, and was soon quite at my ease. At last I prevailed upon Mrs Gadabout — Tom's pretty wifp — to share a comfortable sofa with me, and during the intervals between the music to tell me about the 1 Veneerings. Mrs Gadabout hears everything about everybody, and is always able to put me up to all that has happened in society during my absence. I found that the Veneerings came from that portion of Boston — still an undiscovered country to Backbavia— the South End. Who and what their parents were nobody knew. They bad left their children a deal of money, and that after all was' a fact that had better not be gone behind. No Veneering had ever j been known in the history of Massachusetts, nor in the genealogy of any of its families. lAs George D'Alroy's mother would have | said : " There never was a Veneering ; he doe's not exist." Bat, as he replied: "He takes the liberty of breathing, nevertheless." And this one did, too, in a most flourishing manner! Veneering speculated in stocks, and he looked as if he did. I have always noticed that the showiest men I see are either dabblers in stocks or gamblers — i occupations, after all, only different in degree, j one being the more fashionable name for the other. Ifc seemed that early last season these good people had bought and furnished ' the spacious house in which they were now entertaining. So far, so good; but what were they to do for society? They had ! turned their backs upon their past and its associations ; the old friends and old times i were gone for ever ; weeks passed and not a card was left at their door. Veneering, who would have made a great general, at last made a really brilliant move. A famous English actor, who was armed with letters to people literally and fashionable, ! came to town. At once he was captured by Veneering, and engaged to give a course of talks on dramatic art at his house. It was agreed that this should be done at no other house at Boston. Whoever wished to hear these talks must come to the Veneerings ; but, as they knew no one to ask, the astor made out the list for them, and added his card to the invitations. The result was that the entire literary set nocked to the Veneeripgs. Society— that is, Boston's upper ten — stayed at home, with the exception of a few stray sheep, who wandered to the unknown fields attracted by the powerful charm of the ' t speaker. Of course everyone who had been so delightfully entertained hastened to leave cards upon the Veneerings, and to invite them to their next crush. Before the season was over they were fairly launched in society, with the additional aid of a series of musicales given during the Lenten j season. It was soon whispered about that their music-room was one of the best adapted for its purpose in all Boston. They |al ways engagedthe first artists, and what is 'more to the point, especially in the literary 1 set, always gave splendid suppers, with plenty of good wine. The Boston literati are too accustomed to weak tea and cake not to appreciate the advantages of canvas back ducks and champagne -when these delicacies so unexpectedly fall in their way. On my way home that evening it really grieved me to realise that, should the Veneering fortune last, their children would, in all probability, be reckoned among che aristocracy of Boston. I am quite sure that most true Bostonians will agree with me that this is a dreadful outlook, One by one the barriers that used, in the good old times, to protect us from plebeian invaders have been swept away. Ib is sad to think that, finally, the descendants of our Pilgrim Fathers will be lost in such .mushroom growth as the Veneerings show. After all a republic has its disadvantages. Had the United Statesbeen a monarchy, we Bostonians would have composed by far the greater part of the aristocracy ; and had we not lost ! our fortunes and intermarried too often, would have set an even loftier example than we now do to the rest of the world. — Satur- [ day Evening Gazette.