Life — July 1, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“LIFE: 15 the animals. But the common herd _ to allow them to use the same ocean; that howled at a Van Alen, with is not allowed to use the society but we must expect a painful indif- one ‘*1.” It is a noble privilege for strand for bathing; it is bad enough ference to vested rights ina republic our lower classes to be allowed to view the nobility without an admission fee, and our upper classes seem willing to be gazed on; for what is the use of spending money on thingsif no one comes to envy us their possession ? » Newport has an ancient, tuined mill, nearly as in- teresting as the shop- keeping ruins of aristo- crats on Fifth Avenue, or the pseudo-Norman cas- tles of Lenox. The Rhode Island legis- lature meets occasionally at Newport when there is no flower parade or ama- teur circus, and it is al- lowed, in its official capa- city, to look at the lawns and present legal oppor- tunities for dodging taxes and facilitating divorces. After a season of splurge and pretension at New- port, ifthe cash holds out, the aristocrat is eligible for admission to an aban- doned farm at Lenox, where he can set up a family homestead and butler, with retainers and ancestral trimmings. In fine, Newport is prac- tically the pinnacle of American social aspira- tion, where cash will ad- mit anyone, from Captain Kidd to the latest train robber ; and he who en- ters therein can confi- dently count on that sum of human glory—a para- @ xraph in the society col- umns of the New York press. Newport, in fact, means money; and money is now a synonym for breeding, manners, taste, decency and ordinary morals, THE ALPINE CYCLE CLUB TAKES AN OUTING, Joseph Smith, comicbooks.com