THE COURIER
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and Mr. Belmont continued his devoted attentions. Early in the
season of 1893 Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt returned to Newport and open
ed the marble house, and matters were much the same as usual
until the arrival of Mr. Vanderbilt on his new yacht, Valiant. After
that there was a visit to Chicago, with Mr. Belmont in the party as
usual, and then came the projected trip on the Valiant, which ended
as every one said it would, disastrously. O. P. II. Belmont was, it is
believed, persuaded with great difficulty to go by Mrs. Vanderbilt.
F. O. Beach, who was one of the party, is the great friend of both
Mrs. Vanderbilt acd O. P. H. Belmont. He is a not a man tf any
means. Dr. Keyes, who was paid a great price to be one of the
party, is one of the most entertaining men in town, and had pre
viously been off on long trips with W. K. Vanderbilt. Ho left the
Valiant after India and Egypt had been visited, and joined his wife
in Rome. It was the talk at the time that W. S. Hoyt. who was
urged to join the paty, declined entirely when fie ascertained that
O. P. H. Belmont was to be along. General gossip at Newport now
is that William K. Vanderbilt wants to be free and marry the Duch
ess of Manchester, nee Yznaga, whom he has long loved as long as
the Duke of Devonshire did her own titled predecessor, before he
got his chance to marry. This is what many of the society women
are whispering.
The Drayton divorce suit ip still a reigning sensation among the
exclusive set of Gotham's four hundred and speculation is rife as to
the probable out come of the family trouble which ha3 been stirred
up between a jealous husband and a wife, who to say the least,
seems to have had very independent ideas of marital life. In fact,
it is a momentous issue for society.
Mrs. Drayton's friends are convinced that she is a much injured
person and the victim of an insane jealousy on the part of her hus
band. They say that she can easily disprove all the charges which
he makes against her concerning her alleged intimacy with Hallet
Alsop Borrowe, and that, at the most, she was only guilty of indis
cretion.
Mr. Drayton, they say, has brought his divorce suit mainly to off
set the proceedings begun by his wife in the Surrogate's Court in
New York lastjepring to get possession of her children. In her petition
Mrs. Drayton alleged that although her husband has the nominal
custody of her four children, he seldom visits them, but that they
are in the actual charge and custody of servants employed by him.
All the children are of a tender age and need the care and control of
a mother, she says.
The trustees of the estate of the children, it is further alleged,
have been paying out $25,000 a year for the past two years for their
maintenance, while she (Mrs. Drayton) has been reimbursing them
to the extent of 810,000 from her own income, and now they refuse
to pay out any more money in this way.
In conclusion she asks that a citation shall issue to J. Coleman
Drayton, the father of the children, and to the trustees of the will
of the late William Astor, to show cause why she should be appoint
ed such guardian.
The matter has never come up formally in court, and no citations
have yet been issued, but it is said that'the case will be pushed as
soon as Mrs. Drayton's counsel can arrange to do so.
Mr. Drayton's friends, on the other hand, make him out a much
injured husband, who long had just cause to complain of his wife's
actions, but who, for family reasons, and to avoid scandal, held his
peace and allowed things to go on, until he was obliged to take pub
lic notice of the matter.
Mr. Borrowe, who is busy just now running a Newark trolley line
does not seem to be worried at all about the cape, and treats the
whole thing with the greatest indifference.
The Mallock article in the North American Review on London
society has made much comment. The following are brief extracts:
Many critics of society of London society in particular especial
ly those who have little personal acquaintance with it. are accustom
ed to denounce it with righteous and somewhat acrimonious indig
nation, for the way in which it neglects persons of moral and mental
worth, the earnest wcrker, the great artist or writer, the profound
scientist or philosopher; and courts those who are distinguished by
mere frivolous or adventitious advantages, such as beauty, chic,
wealth and titular rank. And the undoubted though partial truth
contained in these familiar remarks has inspired for ages a success
ion of unceasing sarcasms which have been a great comfort to their
authors without disturbing their objects. But when the truth of
the matter is considered more completely, there is found to ho in
reality little occasion for sarcasm at all; and the conduct which is
supposed to be peculiar to a heartless and iniquitous aristocracy ia
seen to be essentially that natural and inevitable conduct which is
followed, in social intercourse, by all ranks and classes.
But granting the position of everybody to bo rightly estimated,
how far do persons, merely by their high position, as such, add legit
imately to the Bocial brilliancy of an entertainment? The answer is
that if they have nothing but their position to recommend them,
they add to the brilliancy of an entertainment in precisely the same
way as a great genius would had he no power of conversation. Many
people would denounce a hostess for inviting a duke merely becauBu
he was a duke would praise her for inviting a great philosopher
merely because he was a great philosopher. But if the philosopher
were not an agreeable man personally, his social valuo would be of
exactly the same as the duke's. It would be derived altogether
from the exceptional prestige of his name. He might be the soul of
his books, but he would be only a name at tho dinner table. If
these social censors are right who think that a dinner party would
be improved by the presence of a man merely because he is distin
guished as a philosopher, for precisely the same reason is a dinner
party improved by the presence of man distinguished merely because
he is a duke; only the duke is far more likely to be a pleasant man
of the world.
A good deal has been said about the omnipotence of mere wealth
in modern London, and how of any vulgar man, by the brute force
of his millions, can make his way in society and command the hom
age or everybody. And in all this there is some truth; but there is
more exaggeration. In the first place it is only fortunes of excep
tional magnitude that will of themselves give their possessors any
exceptional social advantages. Modern fortunes may supply the
means by which persins with social ambitions can make their per
sonal qualifications felt: but of enormous fortunes the total number
is very small. New men have been raising themselves for the last
ninety years, but there are not in the whole kingdom more than
some 250 with more than .50,000 a year; and between seventy and
eighty of them are old-established landed magnates. But it is still
more important to observe that whatever new members may add
themselves to the de facto aristocracy of the kingdom, they do this
only by coalescing with or in so far as they coalesce with the old.
According to the Arkansair Traveler society is as natural as the
breath we breathe. Two men meet and shake hands; perhaps they
merely pass the favors of the day. That is society. Two girls meet,
they kiss and smile and go33tp and take an inventory of each other's
apparel and pass on with the air of released convicts, glad it's over
That is society. Two boys meet, they are in too big a hurry to come
to a dead halt, so they exchange a few questions as to whither and
pass on. That is society. Gaze into the crowded ball room. That
is society. Behold the good sisters of the W. R. C. or the Royal
Neighbors or the W. C. T. U., or any church working their fingers
to the bone, wearing out shoe leather, exhausting patience, donating
dollars and netting pennies in some good cause. That is society.
See two old ladies sipping tea and recalling the events of the
shadowy past. That is society. Feast your eyes on the dark deni
zens of Ebony alley, hilariously happy in the go-as-you-please indul
gences of a cake walk. That is society. Take note of the assembling
of the camps, lodges, cantons, associations, clubs, garrisons, posts,
etc. This is all society. Life is a social scheme. Man is a social
animal. Society is a blanket term and embraces human existence.
Robinson Crusoes and hermits are raro. It is well that .it is so.
Everybody is "in society."
Mr. Zehrung's debut as a theatrical manager may be said to have
been fairly made now. Years ago, when he began to take an active
interest in theatricals, it became inevitable that at some time in his
career Mr. Zehrung would have a theatre of his own. Mr. Zehrung
as was remarked in The Coi'rier when the announcement was first
made that he would manage the Funke, has so Tie proper ideas of
how things should be done in the theatre and if he does not get dis
couragetl, and he will not, he ought to add to his successes that of
theatre management.