THE "FOUR HUNDRED.”

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 526, 24 September 1902, Page 3

THE "FOUR HUNDRED.”

Thoro baa been a controversy in America as to how tho Amorican “ four hundred,” or “ aristocracy " look as compared with other.pooplo. One writer points out that tho leisuro class in all countries is, as a matter of fact, just like everybody elso, except in purely artificial and superficial ways. It has loisuao; tho majority of mankind do not. Having loisuro, aud the wealth that goes with it, it is able to itself in cortain “ extras ” that money will buy. It can lay down for itsself certain rules and conventions of living that can only be observed by pooplo whose chief occupation is “ killing tiuio. It can chaD<’o its clothes three or six times a day aud prescribe a different costume for ovory game it plays, every meal it sits down to and ovory " function ” it holds. It can multipy its horses and carriages; its yachts and its automobiles; likewiso its manservants and maidservants. It cun establish an elaborate etiquotto for exchanging compliments and courtesies, the dotails whereof require a hand-book in aid of tho mornory, “ lest wo forget. It can, and it does, all'cct a conversational stylo unknown to other folks, uso a complicated slau" of its own creation and a pronunciation°unauthoriscd by any dictionary. But all theso things fail to mako them essentially different from tho rest ot humanity. They are still men and women. Physically, mentally and morally they exhibit an average quality of human naturo. Young women quito as handsome and “ aristocratic looking” can be scon behind shop counters in hew York as on tho drive at Newport, while tho avoruge male 11 swell” is notoriously a puffy and scrubby fellow, unless he chances also to bo young aud given to athletic sports. Wliilo this is true in all countries, it is especially so I in Amorica. Tno wealthy aud leisured j class of Americans is bound to be always coining up from the genoral mass and vomg back to it. Even in England, with its cast-iron feudal system ol tying up »reat landed estates, so that they pass from father to sou or noxt male kin until the family dies out, it is fuuud difficult to maintain a special ruling casto that is capable of ruling. To preserve the sembianco of it tho peerugo is constantly rocruited with new blood. Two-thirds of the hereditary poorages are now creations, not ono hundred years old, and after many centuries the number of really distinguished men, great by virtue of their own tulents and achievements, in a House of Lords of nearly six hundred mombers, would not half fill one railroad car. Of course the Four Hundred at Newport, or elsewhere, “look like everybody olse.” This is neither their .fault nor their misfortune, but their unavoidable and on tho whole happy fate.