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Show Precedence in England. I knew a young American girl, who, going to England under the care of an Embassador's family, and attending her first large dinner party, and looking about her, selected, as the guest ln the room who most interested her, one man of distinguished aspect, whom she resolved re-solved to watch. When the guests were ushered Into the dlning-hall according to the laws of precedence, she found herself her-self at the very end of the brilliant procession, pro-cession, as one of two untitled plebeians in the room, assigned to the escort of the very man who had interested her, and who turned out to be Samuel Rogers, the poet and patron of art, and the recognized rec-ognized head of literary society in England. Eng-land. She always said that she secured two things at that entertainment, namely, name-ly, the most delightful companion that sho ever had at a dinner party, and, moreover, a lesson in the outcome of mere hereditary rank that would last a lifetime. Rogers's poems are not now read eo much as formerly, but at that time tho highest literary honor a man could have was to dine with Rogers. He was also one of Uie richest bankers in London, and was very possibly Uie only person ln the room who had won for himself a reputation outside of his own little Island; but he was next to nobody ln that company, and the little American Amer-ican girl was nobody. Thomas Went-worth Went-worth Higginson ln the Atlantic. |