Show V ENOLV3H ARISTOCRACY It Is Slowly totting Down the Bars of Class lixclusiveucss Not no long ago the line between the aristocratic mId other classes of the community com-munity wra very decidedly drawn at trade A poor family might lay claims to gentility l1h oucor more otatemam bers might Jow andfljeSrfinre at say a county b4l but a tradesmans family = fam-ily neve Now it is otherwise < the aristocracy themselves having stepped over tho dividing line Lord Shrewsbury Shrews-bury and Talbot for instance who takes precedence of all other earls unblushingly unblush-ingly became a cab proprietor Lord Rayleigh is the inscription that maybe may-be read on tho signboard of one or two London dairies The Marquis of Lon donderry is prepared to deliver coal by the ton IINo ngentssuch are the final words of this noblemans advertisement adver-tisement put in just as any trader born and bred might put them in This descent de-scent from aristocratic seclusion into the arena of commercial conflict is not confined con-fined to thd male portion of our nobility Titled ladies under disguised names carry on millinery establishments and run cafes Their dainty fingers too are not above manipulating flowers for profit So generally indeed has tho sacred thirst for gold infected the upper ten that whereas they were wont to be accused of living in idleness they are now accused of taking the bread out of the mouths of those who depend entirely upon business for their support Far beneath these noblo ranks can be traced a similar descent Street music for instance used to be discoursed by the utterly abject and broken down Now men and women warmly clad and well fed go about with organs Troops of men sing rattle the bones and do a breakdown in public thoroughfares to the tune of not less than the better part of a sovereign a day per man Two hundred hun-dred pounds a year in an assured situation situa-tion was tSo salary that one young man threw up last summer to join a uiggei troop at tile seaside and he doesnt regret re-gret it Afc the end of the season he had more money than he ever had at onetime one-time before and during the season he ate better dinners and drank better wines than he had ever eaten or drunk 4 efore Hawfins matches or laces or t tbor trifle = in Tnnbliq house bars 4 led o ho and still is a way of evading the law against begging Indeed the r custom of singing on the streets arose out of the same necessity for those in want not to incriminate themselves Now you will be in the saloon bar of a first rate refreshment house In comes a top hatred well dressed man with a bag Some successful stockbroker you think if it be in the city You fancy you are the victim of a delusion Hero is this man as well dressed as your principal holding his open bag before you and asking you to buy a box of ves tas Well dressed women are going about from public house to public house pursuing similar callings Thoy speak well too do these people betraying a fair amount of education If tradesmen have any grounds for complaining of the aristocracy trenching on their territory terri-tory surely tho poor and needy have grounds of similar complaining of having hav-ing the instruments of their profession thus confiscated by an apparently superior supe-rior class Of course with such a general gen-eral downward trend the poor and needy are driven lower still and this in a measure is seen in the ever increasing charitable institutions relief agencies soup kitchens and so forth and tho over Increasing strain on the resources of such establishments Cassells Journal |