Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — An Invasion of England. [ARTICLE]

An Invasion of England.

According to popular estimate, it requires not less than three generations of wealth to evolve a gentleman from the common herd of humanity. By this standard of measurement Mr. W. Astor (it is not necessary to follow the custom of New York papers and use type enough to spell his entire name) is a gentleman, as are many other descendants from the traders, smugglers, and fishermen of old Manhattan. His grandfather, who smelled strongly of salted pelts, In which he dealt, has left the Englishspeaking business world the invaluable symbol “O. K.,” which he first used, these letters being the initial ones of the two words? “Oil Korrect, ”as that dealer in hides spelled them. Somewhat to the consternation of New York society, Mr. Astor, he of the third generation, actually contemplates going to London to reside. Now, no one questions his right to reside where it pleases him best* for he is only one of many who look upon America in its newness and rawness as only suitable for mon-ey-making, but as not the place in which to get the best things out of this life. How common the expression, “Europe is the only land in which to live.” The Astors have always been noted for looking well to the interests of the Astors, and the present possessor of the Astor estates may reside where it best suits him, and none need seriously Question his taste or resolve. In England, especially in London, a gentleman can always have the society of gentlemen, especially when, like Mr. Astor, he has more than a pecuniary independence. According to the rule above cited, Mr. Jay Gould cannot be regarded a gentleman, and that title can only rest upon his grandson, should a goodly proportion of the Gould wealth be preserved for him, and this long after the ancestral Jay, like the ancestral Astors, has found oblivion in the tomb. Who knows but that the great and powerful families of England a generation or two hence may be the Astors, Vanderbilts and the Goulds. England may manage American breweries, while the “irony of fate” is likely to “even up” this invasion of of our malt interests by furnishing the sea-girt isle with her “first families.”