Show WERE KINGS IN THE VILLAGE CLEVER aiLttXMA WHO DID NOT WANT TO PLAY SECOND IN ROjIE How a Smart Set Was Formed and Tasted of tIle Sweets of Supremacy Suprem-acy Discontented Young People May Find Lessons All About Them Ilicycle Costumes and Tight I Lacing I It is better to be head among foxes than tail among lions said a philosophic I philo-sophic dame who was malting her plans for the summer and who with her family was considering the pros and cons of the various watering places I At Newport we should be simply submerged sub-merged lost out of sight and it would be a continual struggle as well as great expense to keep respectably in the swim At Bar Harbor or Lenox one feels one has at least an identity but even there there are no end of people I who are better off and consequently smarter and we should be units in a crowd Whereas if go to A or B or C we would be leaders in a way and the girls would I think have an infinitely in-finitely better time To B they went therefore took one of the largest houses and established themselves with their retinue of servants ser-vants horses etc for the season There is one thing that you must remember re-member girls continued this Mich iavellianmamma You must not make yourselves common The majority of these people are second rate and you must be careful not to form intimacies that will be inconvenient next winter in New York The Xs and the Ys are well enough you would better keep with them altogether In this way the smart set at B was formed and became very exclusive exclu-sive indeed while those whQ composed it tasted for the first time in their lives the sweets of supremacy What airs these people assume exclaimed a transient visitor to B one who in her turn considered that her social position gave her a right to criticise Do you mean to tell me it is really the As and the Xs that are spoken of with such respect How nice for these poor things to feel themselves so grand and how hard it will be to give up all this importance when they go back to town It is the funniest sensation sen-sation to feel myself patronized by these people whom I really hardly know Mrs A rustled up to me the other day with the suavity of a duchess duch-ess I am delighted to see you at B she said as if she owned the place You must come and lunch with me and I will ask some people to meet you Of course the general society here is very mixed but there Is a very nice inner circle when you get to know themalthough she continued confidentially confi-dentially they are not exactly the set that you and I are intimate with in New TorkYou You seem to know Mrs A very well said an acquaintance I had picked pick-ed up at the casino with an obvious increase of respect for my position I I chuckled to myself over the humor of I the whole thing she continued not I taking into consideration that a philosopher phi-losopher ight also discover a certain I 1 amount of humor in looking at the var i ious ramifications of the matter from a I point of view which included her also in the comical suggestiveness of the situation The snobs are many That the more one has the more one wants is a fact too well known to need comment but it is odd to contrast the discontent of many young people who have so much to make them happy with the simple content and cheerfulness cheerful-ness of the great army of breadwinners breadwin-ners of their own age whose lives certainly cer-tainly must be full of hardship and privation I had occasion said a lady recently recent-ly to stop at just about the opening hour at one of those mammoth establishments estab-lishments which supply apparently every need of human life and the employees em-ployees of which must be numbered by hundreds I was greatly struck by the good humor the cheerfulness of the vast army of wageearners particularly particular-ly the little cash girls Their ready alacrity to do little kindnesses to each other their smiling faces no matter how delicate looking or ill clothed were most winning I did not see one gloomy crosslooking unhappy child What a sermon for my children 1 thought and what a comment upon I the > nobility of labor for it is only the idle who are discontented and complaining I com-plaining I I have two young girls of 18 in my house said a good and benevolent I woman One is cheery and happy and patient pleased with the smallest I trifle grateful for the Least l kindness i while it is taken as a matter of course I that her entire time from morning until I un-til night day after day without ceasing ceas-ing should be devoted to the service of others without expecting either thanks or favor The other although born with an equally good disposition is uncertain in her temper lives a self absorbed and therefore selfish life and is continually complaining because she 1 has not as many luxuries as certain of her friends One of these girls is a I housemaid and the other is my niece i I I often think of the contrast between them and wonder at the unfailing good humor and cheerfulness of the former I With < natural perversity young people 1 peo-ple are apt to contrast their lot with that of the small minority of those more favored by fortune than themselves i them-selves rather than with those of the far greaver class who have less or even nothing who are obliged to toil for their daily sustenance and from whom they might well take a lesson in cher ful acquiescence in circumstances I That clever old lady Queen Victoria does not object to bicycling but the prevailing costumes of the fair riders she simply loathes and has confessed to a positive horror of the rational I j dress which she has seen worn about I j Windsor Her horror is justifiable for in so far as womans bicycling dress approaches the masculine it is detestable Among I socalled smart women it has been i decided that the most attractive costume cos-tume includes the wellcut skirt of modest I mod-est length the trimly belted Norfolk jacket and the laced boots that so charmingly clothe a slender foot and ankle II I I There are rumors from Paris that the I Greek waist is coming that the fashionable fash-ionable dressmakers are giving their customers to understand that their I ideals are changing and that there is to be no more tight lacing This if true must mean that there are to be notable not-able changes also in the cut and fashioning I fash-ioning of gowns During the past winter and spring more tight lacing has been observed here and abroad than for many a year I It will be pleasant to note the disappearance disappear-ance of these abominably ugly stiff and ungraceful little waists A small waist if small by nature may be lithe and neat and trig but a waist laced W r > tJ oz I into tiny proportions is a wooden monstrosity mon-strosity without any charm whatever i The Countess of Warwick has developed I i devel-oped her beloved flower garden some poetic ideas that are worth describing and imitating She has for example a Shakespeare border wherein she has gathered all the trees shrubs flowers and vegetables mentioned by Shakespeare Shake-speare to the number of 200 Then she has a border of sentiment each flower flow-er therein having been planted by a dear friend In her Rosary each beautiful bush carries a label on which is written an appropriate verse from some poet I That there is a real love for flowers among American women is certain I but it must be admitted that it is not often made by use of by those who have wealth leisure and opportunity to indulge I dulge in prety fancies like those of Lady Warwick It is the busy women on the farm or in the village who takes I delight in tending a few pet flowers generally house plants and professional growers sometimes note with wonder the remarkable way In which these nurslings I nur-slings often flourish Can one say that plants know when they are loved and respond in kind Their whimsical and bewitching ways sometimes make one believe HNew York Tribune |