THE " UPPER TEN" OF W YORK.

Timaru Herald, Volume LII, Issue 5162, 8 June 1891, Page 4

THE " UPPER TEN " OF W YORK.

{New York Truth.)

If any of the future kings of England should ever marry au American girl, the match will be brought about by a woman. Our men, as a rule, are rather cold to .Europeans of rank. I'he bost JS'ew York clubs give them but three daye on their invitation cards, where before it wan seven. Lord Adolphus or the Comte Boisde-Uoulonge may ba revered by cortaip coxcombs, when they come to us, but the real men are shy of them. And yet with what idolatry do tho women give them greeting ! If there is a live nobleman m any of our drawing rooms, jou can always tell him by the rustle of petticoatß m bis vioinity. There is no woman present, young, middle-aged, or old, whom be cannot captivate with a glance. If he be unmarried his conquest is all the more facile. The •»•; aged crone, with ten i-tips as mary wri. ! sas her fan, will aecretl) venerate bun m ilb light of an idea. And that idea mi-uns — ho has the almost celestial pawer o: •■ nferring a title on the woman he marries Ono can couut on one's fingers the solid ni> 1 sensible men who gninto society and are " seen out" after tdoy are bachelors of five-and-thirty. In London it would be very hard to count such bachelors of fivivand-thirty m a like way- The truth is simply this, w.heu it comes to any comparisons between tho t»»o countries ; England is doing her very best quietly to diooncumber herself from the curse of an aristocrdoy, and we m America (mid ospecially m New York) are doing our vi-ry beat to make a plutocracy aristocratic. Women are m both cases at the root of tho whole turbid transition. Over Beis they have set themoelves against a wholesome change, and fail with that graceful kind of surrender which they alono (God bless them !) know how to manifest. Here they are striving tooth and nail to create and perpetuate a most unwholoenme change, and with fair apparent chances of success. Thera is no Upper Bohemia m Hew York. There is merely a droll struggle of millionaires to outdo one another m a series of " splurges." Foreigners come to ub and marvel that they never meet our "distinguished " people anywhere, except m their libraries and Btudios. It is doubtful if the late General Sherman, one of the most brilliant soldiers who ever lived, was ever oven invited to a Patriarohs' Bull m his life, and it is equally doubtful whether he would have gone to one if invited; for among his many virtues General Sherman was surely a man who abhorred gilded braggadocio.