Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 389, 22 October 1903, Page 2

Social Moods.

NEW YORK'S 'FOUR HUNDRED.' 3KDLE eons of rich, bob honest parents, flip finding unlimited wealth at their 2K disposal, and being too lazy to work as their fathers did, torn to these freakish exploits as ontlets for their nervous energies. In thie they receive material encouragement from the Yellow Press; and the result is sufficient to make their Bhopkeeping, fur trading ancestors of colonial days turn over several times in their respected graves. To certain New York newspapers at-1 taches the 'credit' for 'discovering' the smart set. Its erratic leaders are consistently encouraged in their mad pranks, so that hunger for publicity has become a disease. Social prestige depends upon the amount of advertising received. The Bean Brummela of the day compete for fkst place in the Sunday issues, A pot of society can tell to a column whether his popularity has waned or increased during the current month. Woe to the favourite, man or woman, who drops, in newspaper estimation to the list of those 'also present'! Thus, when a perfect lady startled the world a little while ago by paddling, sans hosiery, in the fountain ox New York's Trafalgar-square, she was written about and photographed instead of being arrested by an Irish policeman. She came to the conclusion that her escapade was praiseworthy rather than naughty, and at once ttiere was keen competition among her rivals for social supremacy to do something equally novel and daring. The pace grew faster and faster. New York's silliness was contagions; and provincial 'smart sets' tried, with flittering imitation, te be sillier still. Until recently California held the challenge cup f( r eccentric behavior It has become the custom for a millionaire to give' a bachelor supper on the eve of his marriage, his guests assisting him at the close of the feast to destroy thousands of pounds worth of furnitnre and bric-a-brac, to show their contempt for money. Oarpets are ripped up, costly plate glass mirrors shattered, chandeliers pulled out by the roots, and broken china Btrewed ankle deep on the dining-room floor. The man who destroys the most furniture is considered tha finest fellow.

This lofty disregard for mere gold was displayed with sack enthusiasm at a recent anta-nuptial banquet in Los Angeles that practically nothing was left of the nest's house but its walls and roof. His guests even burnt the butler's clotheej and then everybody had a bath in champagne. In New York Mr. Harry Lehr represents the extreme decadence of modern society. Once a wine agent, made popular in the 'exclusive circles' by one of the best-known women in New York, he speedily became a leader of society, occupying the somewhat loose-fitting shoes of the late Ward M'Aliister. The vulgar rabble beyond the gates called him a Court jester, Mr, Lahr knew by this that he had'arrived,' and was thoroughly happy. Every other idie fellow in the idle set strove to imitate him. Some of the imitations were pretty good. Mr. Lehr stage-managed a performance of the perfect lady who paddled in the public fountain in New York. For this he received much applause and newspaper photographs in various attitudes. His later achievements put the episode of the fountain quite in the background, however. It was Mr. Lehr who, tiring of his fellows, sought the congenial society of a trained monkey, which he educated.for a life in society. He treated the monkey like a brother, soothed with a fat cheque the outraged feelings of the tailor who measured him for clothes, and spent hours training' the simian to be a butterfly of fashion. Mr. Lehr was happy when the monkey could: e&t with a knife and fork ; it was the proudest moment of his life when it drank champagne, and put its feet on the table with the air of a finished diner-out. Then Mr. Lshr gave a dinner party. The monkey was the gtjest of honour, and a number of other gentlemen of Mr. Lehr's set were also present. The monkey expressed his opinion of other diners by getting drunk immediately and weeping bitterly with his head on a serviette. Mr. Lehr has other diversions. He likes to appear as a ballet girl, in abi breviated skirts, false outlines and a high falsetto voice. He wears hand-painted . hose. He is constantly devising new ' tricks with which to amuse society. While returning to New York from the Vanderbilt-Nellson wedding at Newport, a few months ago, Mr. Lehr was loudly applauded for capering about the deck on all fours, barking like a dog, and drenching a namber of persons with water from a fire ho3e. Ween he climbed up a stanchion like his simian friend, a wellknown beauty declared that she positively could not stand it, that Mr. Lehr: was just too killing! The mania for weird parties is a distinct form of the disease. Londoners can

hardly appreciate the humour of an appendicitis dinner, given by a Galifornian hostess recently to celebrate her return from hospital. Surgical knives were used and the menu printed in terms that would have been more appropriate in an operating room. The 'horseback dinner' was 'planned by an envious New York Host. At the horseback dinner the guests sat in saddles and ate twenty courses in a room decorated like a stable. _ ! The 'looking backward dinner' given in New York had for its distinctive feature the wearing o! reversed masks by the guests. The effect, when the maskers had consumed the requisite amount of champagne, can better be imagined than described, ' ; A happy conceit: was that of a New York hostess whose husband stood high in the Tammany councils. His 'pull' was enormous. The hostess gave a dinner party which proceeded in the usual way until dessert. Suddenly -there was a clang of a polio a gong, the tramp of many feet, and screams from the servants. A captaii burst into the room in full uniform,

' Sorry, ladies and gents,' he said in his best society manner, ' but de house is pulled.' Which was a polite way of saying that everyone is under arrest. Off to the poliee station they went—three patrol waggon loads—-the men dazed, the women crying. They were searched and locked up. Then appeared the Tammany chieftain aforesaid, whose wife j had given the dinner, and ordered their release. Jt was merely a pleasant little diversion, and the guests rode back to the Fifth Avenue mansion in cabs, convinced that thgy had had a glorious time. ' Tranp dinners' are still popular. The guests at a 'tramp dinner' appear in rags! and tatters. The food is served in old tins, and.instead of a t-ble there are. deal, boxes. The waiters are disguised as Salvation Army officers, and they serve hymn books with the food* The room is decorated to represent a ' barracks.* At the last 'tramp dinner' the inimitable Mr, Lehr scored a hit in his impersonation of a knight of the road. One of the newspapers, admiringly remarkedt 'no one would havo dreamed ho was a gentleman.'