Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1912 — CANINE AS SPONSOR [ARTICLE]

CANINE AS SPONSOR

Admission to Society in New York Declared to Be Easier Now. Woman With Social Aspirations May Obtain Entree by Possessing Dog —Routes Are Open to the Climbers. New York. —Time was when breaking into New York ( society was a simple matter. You merely waited. Eventually, in the course of several generations, you stood a chance of being invited to the very best houses. It was three generations before the Astors amounted to anything as social beings in this community, writes a New York correspondent. Thfe Vanderbilts made the extraordinary leap in better time —in two generations—thanks to the mental resources and determination of a doughty social warrior whom the family acquired by marriage, and later lost by divorce. People “get in” New York society now in a few years; sometimes in a single season. Now a multiplicity of avenues of approach have been discovered. Here are ten: Dogs, women’s clubs, publicity, charity, summer resorts, graft, the opera, first nights, travel eign), woman suffrage. The avenue of dogs alone indicates the advance we have made. Some cynics may crll it retrogression. How cruel when one can thus lessen the years necessary for a social entree! - Children used to be the avenue of approach, which has been usurped by the later pets. One of the first moves of the socially ambitious woman in New York these days is the requirement of a dog. If the proper beginning is made, If the right sort of dog is secured, the next step is to enter him at the exclusive dog show. This may be done the very first year. And there the woman has iher first social opportunity. There are dog luncheons, dog dinners, dog receptions to which her canine will be invited, and no canine can go alone. The mistress must T be included. Some day she may eventually be invited on her own account. Another avenue for the social climber is the summer resort and foreign travel. In itself New York is a glacial city, socially. Its surfaces are so rounded that it must be a hardy climber who can secure a hold. Thus many have resolved to bring into the strategy of their campaign a flank assault on the citadel of caste. They remove their i artillery to a distance. They pay outrageous prices to the hotels in the fashionable resorts In summer and to the stopping places on the grand tour to Europe In the hope of thus scraping a valuable ac< u&intance. /lost of them fall. The average tenure of residence in New York of the wealthy women who come from elsewhere is seven years—the life of the chorus girl, of the yellow reporter and of the bounder tenant at Newport First they wear out the novelty of the theaters and the opera. Then, having been ignored, or, if too persistent, snubbed repeatedly, they move

on to the American resorts In summer, to the European in winter, in the hope that they will find the social crust there less glacial. Through this avenue a few —a very few —find the coveted entrance and many fail." The pensions of Naples, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Paris and Munich are filled with the wives and daughters of wealthy American men who have settled in New York from elsewhere. *-