Show 11AliP f ALI TER ON BO TON OCIErY Thrifty Staidand Prim I the Codfish Aristocracy GOOD SCHOLARS BUT POOR SWEETHEARTS JOOR SO HE DESCRIBES TiE MAIDENS OF THE HUB I Fit Entertainments Are There TJn Iviiovrii Class Love Making of tIle Girls Oddities of Domestic Life Mutual Admiration in the Hull of the Universe I have h beiyiftirnused and somewhat I interested in hearing of late the criticisms criti-cisms of certain Bostonians on the fashionable life of New York city I appears to be agreed by the profound thinkers of the Hub which term includes in-cludes a great majority of the citizens both male and female that the society of this city is a thing to be shunped being not only wicked in itself but demoralizing de-moralizing to the community at large and to all those who come in contact with it 1 have on many previous occasions occa-sions volunteered to take up my pen not exactly in defense of metropolitan fashionable life but rather for the purpose pur-pose of explaining For while I am free to pnnfpss tlL t the sonallerl Four Hundred of New York have their failings ings in common with most others of Gods people I have always maintained that the unfavorable light in which they are regarded is due chiefly to ignorance igno-rance and to a general tendency among all amateur critics to jump at conclusions I will not then undertake here to reply re-ply to the criticisms of these Bostonians Bostoni-ans but will merely attempt to give r brief sketch of the social life of Boston such as it is for the pprpose of comparison com-parison These remarks it Mvill be understood are made with every kind intention as I have no desire to treat with anything but the most sincere respect a people who have always been and no doubt will ever continue to be so unusually exempt from reproach BOSTON THRIFT I shall lay down as my first proposition propo-sition therefore that Boston society people are of themselves a study The goddess of fashion has never been lure to take up her abiding place among them for they are essentially a practi cal economical and thrifty people who havo been trained to the habit of counting count-ing the cost of everything Even the wealthiest Boston people are quite strangers to lavish expenditure and luxurious living and a New York visiting I visit-ing Boston for the first time is Instantly ly struck with astonishment in observ ing the extreme simplicity with which L everything is conducted I The great purpose of the lives of Bostonians is to husband their resources re-sources and to add to them in order to endow some institution and do something i some-thing to ameliorate the condition of I man though that something must be done in their own peculiar way They will pinch and save for a lifetime to accomplish this object I follows i therefore as a matter of course > that true fashionable life cannot exist when > surrounded by such conditions for fashion admits of no rival but flies from those absorbed in practical life j I have observed that several of our Boston critics complain because the fashionable people of New York city are in the habit of spending money lavishly and to no apparent purpose In making such complaints they overlook over-look the important principle that extravagant ex-travagant expenditure and fashionable life are almost interchangeable terms llfe persons may pretend to belong to the smart set in New York city who do not entirely disregard the amount of their expenditures I am well aware that such a spirit is quite incomprehensible incompre-hensible to our friends in Boston for no one could imagine even the most fashionable citizen of the Hub spending spend-ing his money without stint for the of others and purpose entertaining occupying oc-cupying a position in society A ques tion which is invariably asked by New England persons and which is a sure indication of the spirit pervading their lives is Do I get my moneys worth I is this spirit which is responsible for too little entertaining in Boston His H-is very seldom that one hears of a large and brilliant reception or dinner among the fashionable people at the Hub I has been said that large dinners din-ners there are only given as a matter of necessity upon the occasion of some distinguished visitor coming to town At such dinners the f d is carefully I prepared and cleansed as to have much of its flavor washed out Such a thing as an accomplished butler is unknown in Boston and it would be rather unreasonable un-reasonable to expect a man who has lived in a fashionable family t submit to the inexorable rule in that city that the butler must daily make the kitchen fire fa the woman cook Such a rule servants keeps away accomplished S welltrained BOSTON GIRLS The young ladies in Boston society have been s thoroughly cultivated and correctly brought up that they are in a majority of cases entirely ignorant of such a thing as being madly in lovfr Even the casual reader will not fail to 1 notice what a different state of affairs exists among the fashionable young women of New York city i who are so familiar with this state a not to give i any serious consideration A certain eminent Bostonian once confided to me that all such stuff has been effectually educated out of Boston young ladies They are good scholars but poor sweethearts sweet-hearts There ore of course instances when Boston young ladies really do fall in love but it is of a classical sort which would make the society wlhio socety young man of New York feel rather uncomfortable uncom-fortable I a Boston girl wanlts a dress thp first question she asks her mother is Mamma c we afford it The fashionable fash-ionable girl of New York on the other Ihiand first gets her dress as a matter of course send may or may not wonder won-der how nuteih l St costa thereby recognizing recog-nizing a fundamental principle that 1 faslhionaWe woman must always bt faisihiowably dressed In Boston such a a principle does not obtain by any means and I ihave it on very good autlhoniity that numbers of women who are acknowledged to be higQi in Boston society dress with extraordinary ex-traordinary plainness Such persons one cannot conscientiously term fash icnaible the best illhait we can say of them is that they in most oases substitute substi-tute culture for fashion AT NEWPORT AND NAHANT There was f time fifty years ago when Bnokwi people made quite an impression alt Newparit There were then hut few New Yorkers ito divide the social honors with them and the fashionable life in tlhis country was in its Infancy Great luxury and expense ex-pense of living were unknown The B03 I tonians then mode a record at Nev port which still exists Sutfh families I as the Shaws the Sears the dHaute I villcs the Lymans the Grants and the Tlhornidikes made a lasting impression on Newports liltjie fashionable coterie A few of their descendants still have villas at Newport and are stSUMn New pants tr son but they ar not by any means what one would term leaders Boston always had sfts Nahant as a rival to Newport and now it has Bar hfs HbO rather a serious competitor for t > j E i 1 = t the fashionable patronage of PhiladelphIans Philadel-phIans and Baltimoreons But life at Nahawt was simply that of Boston in the country and was winy uninviting Ito the visitor from any other city Those wlhb wanted variety had to seek it e where No doubt this was highly high-ly satisfactory to the Bostonians who stsfaoto > te Bstonans 1o are a clannish as the English whom they like so much ito copy and b taken fcr lhas been of It always bee a source wonder t visitors from that part of the world outside of Boston t oI tsorve the perfect cfcdtentment that Bostonians enjoy wihen associating vvitlh each other They are apparently disturbed by no desire to mingle with outsiders In this way their thoughts ore kept pure and their opinions free from contamination frm cn tinwtion Those whohave created and formed and been at the head of the best society socie-ty of Boston during the past fifty years are persons who have endowed Harvard Har-vard and it library or similar institutions institu-tions For the Bostonian has been brought up with a very commendabe reverence for learning and to feel that life a mapped out for him by his parents par-ents and grandparents who no doubt spent much of their time in the pursuit pur-suit of culture is the correct thing which must be adopted and carried out to the letter To accomplish this affords af-fords them the deepest satisfaction When under the stress of great emergency emer-gency they leave Boston all that they find strange and unusual in other cities they accept and enjoy much as a traveler trav-eler who adapts himself to the strange customs and unusual methods of a alt civilized people The proprieties of life they observe strictly the comiorts they enjoy with the same snirit of abandon assumed by i man walking through a park reading signs which say Keep off the gras t BOSTONIANS IN NEW YORK I has often been remarked that whereas where-as one often sees the names of people from Chicago and other cities among those who have attended entertainments entertain-ments in New Yorjc fashionable life the names of Boston people are seldom encountered though Boston is a comparatively com-paratively near neighbor This is simply sim-ply lease the faohionihle life of Bos toe is so absolutely diffwrent from that of New York tha the two are iuite m compaWe i have often pictured to myself the visits of a thoroughgoing New Yoik society man tp the swell circles have endeavored cles of the Hub and fnl1eavor to imagine what must he his feelings m > l f rounded I < so much culture and Ipxiiing I he feels out of place so must also the Boston society young man who comes to New York and enters fashionable fashion-able life Here I is but natural to suppose sup-pose that he would regard himself as somewhat out of place when surrounded I sur-rounded toy great luxury and brilliancy S I is for this reason I take i that we I see so little of our good Boston friends I in the fashionable life of j New York fashioalle I city The same reason does nOt apply I i to visitors of other cites Chicago I I I have already shown though rather new I to fashionable life is capable of a i great deal and will one day reach a state far in advance of that which it I I at present enjoys though I cannot say I that it will ever be on an equal plane with the fashionable life of the city I Boston however is what it has always I been and what it always will be thoroughly thor-oughly respectable and in many ways I I deserving of our praise but never I likely to do anything which it will regret re-gret gretAs As to New York we can but exclaim ex-claim Shades of our grandmothers What would they say i they could see their granddaughters who are filling their places at the present day The repose the elegance the quiet deemed so essential for a great lady have been consigned to oblivion and in their places have been substituted dash ex 1 citement boundlesS liberty I In the age in which we live time fol lows us so 61osely that to go slowly would cause us to be left behind The I fashionable American woman like the I hummingbird is never seen but on the I wing Every hour of the day and even I ing is portioned off to some amusement j How she stands v the pace amusement I I marvel to Bostonians for she is literally liter-ally on a go all the time whereas in Europe i a girl goes out two or three 1 evenings in a week she thinks she is enjoying tgayety When the social I so-cial season opens unless a fashionable woman attends theopera three times a j week dines out seven days ir the week i i lunches daily at one house or another I and goes nightly to a ball or dance she is losing her time Ward McAllister in New York World I |