AMERICAN SOCIETY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12398, 13 November 1908, Page 5

AMERICAN SOCIETY.

MRS ASTOR ON THE SMART. §ET,

Mrs William AstoF/ mother of ! Colonel John Jacob Astor, for more than a . Jjoneration the~ undispiited, leader" of the New York 1 social world," after several seasons jn retiremeßt, duo to increasnig infirmities ahd olct age, publishes a remarkable farewell letter to American society (writes the New York correspondent of a London paper). _ , /',-..-

The venerable lady, thjough on the whole optimistic, quits the scene of her triumphs with a feeling of almost inexpressible disgust at the "circus methods of achieving notoriety adopted by ladies of the so-called Smart Set.'.' She endorses inequivocally the scathing comments published by Mr Martin Tovrasond, Mrs Stuyvesant Fish and others, and declares that the limelight-loving women of the Smart; Set have inflicted untold harm on the good name of the American aristocracy. "Such women," exclaims Mrs Astor, "are really few in numbers, but appallingly active."

She draws a heartrending picture of what occurs when a distinguished man arrives in New York from

Europe.

"He is seized upon relentlessly, although possibly a stranger to his hostess, and plunged into a mad -'whirl of extraordinary festivities. He enters upon them in much tho same spirit as we would have done as spectators of an Indian war dance. Thus be forms his opinion of us:"

-Mrs Astor's own idoal in tho French

salon in the heyday of its prestige, but she complains that American social leaders are terribly handicapped in their efforts to emulate the. brilliant assemblages of Cabinet Ministers, journalists, Ambassadors, men and women of the stage, painters, poets, and great financiers, so often seen in London and Paris.

She confesses she failed lamentably in this respect, and attributes her failure to the fact that America only has politicians, where England has statesmen. Our ..politicians, she says, "seem to pride themselves on their uncouth manners, and boast of the circumstance that they have discarded socks."

Mr Roosevelt is the exception which proves this rule. He is immaculate both as regards his wardrobe and his ; manners. But- in Mrs Astor's opinion it is impossible for American society to be democratic The English may smile, but the reason is that this democratic country lacks the advantage of an undisputed leader such as the King, whose authority and that of the great old families is never questioned.

"British hostesses," she says, "who gather about them brilliant men and women, are able to be absolutely independent without fearing an onslaught on their own domains. But here each woman is for herself, and is trying to outdo the others in lavish display and mad extravagance, with little, if any, ultimate* good or ideal."