THROWING AWAY THOUSANDS EVERY DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 98, 22 May 1909, Page 3

THROWING AWAY THOUSANDS EVERY DAY.

' QUEER CRAZES OF SOCIETY PEoI'LE

.Society people are often accused of not knowing what to do with their time. It might also lie said that many of them do not know what to do with their money, when one sees the thousands spent on fads' and fancies. I Two thousand pounds for a dog's necklace, 18s for a pound of strawberries, £2OO for four fish, £IOOO for a dress, beds that cost 10(10 guineas, £sllO for a brand-new complexion, £IOO on facial massage and manicuring—thus do the i ''upper ten" get rid of their spare thousands. I SPECIAL FLATS FOR PETS. J One well-known society woman sets | apart the whole of the top floor of her London house for her pets. They have luxurious carpets, sofas, cushions,. eat the best meat, and have many changes of raiment. There are elaborate "toilet establishments" especially for dogs, ( where the "little dears"' are groomed. j and at a hospital for animals beds for i dogs are endowed for £IOO each, while a mother in the East End is feeding her new-born babe on hot water and biscuit. Milk she cannot afford. I This is but one of the contrasts shown by Mr. W. 8.. Xorthrop in his book, l "Wealth and Want.'Vliich draws such a powerful picture of what society people | spend and how the poor live. A short time ago there was exhibited in a shop window in Oxford-street a costly bras* bedstead, with down quilt, embroidered counterpane, and brocade canopy. At .first sight it wits thought to be for a Royal baby. As a matter"of fact, tlie costly cot was for a dog. These pampered pets of the rich are often treated on a par with their own children.

Koine remarkable illustrations arc given of the extravagance of society I ladies in the matter of dress. One [ woman who moves in (lie best society recently spent no les's than £10,01)0 for a dress embroidered with pearls, which she wore once only. Little comment is now aroused when ladies spend £SOO to £IOOO for a drew. For a mantle of silver fox they will ebverfully pay 000 guineas, while the material fo'r-a £SOOO Court dress for one evening's .wear will cost £25 per yard. Yet, as' Mr. Xorthrop .points out, not two miles away thousands of young girls are wearing out their liv<es making men's trousers at 5d each and ladies' nightdresses at 2s per dozen.

At a recent flower show hi (he Temple there was exhibited £IOO,OOO worth of orchids alone. Some of these orchids' were valued nt CSOO each. One man bought six for £3580. Just outside the iron railings which separate the Temple Gardens from the Thames Embankment every night a different "show" takes place—a pitiful exhibition of outcast humanity. Tiro price of the recordbreaking orchid—£l27o 10s—if expended in fourpenny meals would provide "6230 starving people with a dinner. FOETUSES SPENT OX BANQUETS.

.Sumptuous repasts in the Metropolis have been known to cost from £3O to £IOO iper plate. At a recent Christmas dinner given in Txmdon to fifty guests, £IOO was spent in decoration of the rooms; flowers, £420; electric bouquets, £7B 15s; dinner, including wines, £307 10s; hand-painted menus,, £52; entertainment, £1250; and extras brought the total cost of the dinner up to £2500. But unemployed workmen will wait outside a shelter' nil night in order to get a crust of bread and a mug Of cocoa or beg a ticket for a bowl of soup. The "curled darlings'" of society have splendid houses in the West End. with palatial apartments lavishlv furnished, while there are 507,763 families with children occupying single rooms; and homeless men think themselves "in luck" if they get twopence to sleep in a "coffin" covered by a piece of American cloth.

' The rich pay enormous rent for town residences. A well-known landlord has opened some flats in Park Lane. The rents of the first, second, and third floors arc £3OOO each; for the fourth floor, £2500; and for the fifth floor, £ISOO. The sixth floor can—at a price—be secured by any of our readers who want to go in for "high" thinking; it only costs £1250 -per annum. : EAST AXiI) WEST.

The wealthy do not hesitate to .pav £lO per night for comfortable apartments at the great London hotels, while destitute women and children are supposed to "enjoy" floor bunks in Ixradon shelters which are unfit for human beings. Boxes' of cigars' are sold which cost £3O for fifty, or £1 each, while hundreds of tailors in Soho slave everv day of the year fir £25.