ivate the "small sweet courtesies
of life." They are neither shoddyites nor snobs, and while there are
many who do no credit to their class, they constitute one of the
pleasantest portions of metropolitan society. They furnish some of the
most agreeable men, and some of the most beautiful and charming women in
the city. Their homes are elegant, and abound in evidences of the taste
of their owners, who spend their money liberally in support of literature
and the arts. Here are to be found some of the rarest works of European
and American masters. Unfortunately this class of New Yorkers is not
very large. It is destined to increase, however, with the growth of
wealth in the city. Good men, who have begun where the forefathers of
these people started, will constantly contribute their children to swell
this class, in which will always be collected those who unite true merit
to great wealth, those who are proud of their country and its
institutions, contented with its customs, and possessed of too much good
sense to try to add to their importance by a ridiculous assumption of
"aristocratic birth," or a pitiful imitation of the manners of the great
of other lands.

The third class may be said to consist of those who value culture and
personal excellence above riches. There is not much individual wealth in
this class, but its members may be regarded as "persons in comfortable
circumstances." They are better educated, have more correct tastes, and
do the most to give to New York society its best and most attractive
features. It is a class to which merit is a sure passport. It is modest
and unassuming, free from ostentatious parade, and, fortunately, is
growing rapidly. It is made up of professional men of all kinds,
clergymen, lawyers, poets, authors, physicians, painters, sculptors,
journalists, scientific men, and actors, and their families. Its tone is
vigorous and healthy, and it is sufficiently free from forms to make it
independent, and possessed of means enough to enable it to pursue its
objects without hindrance.

The remainder of those who constitute what is called society are the "New
Rich," or as they are sometimes termed, the "Shoddyites." They
constitute the majority of the fashionables, and their influence is felt
in every department of domestic life. They are ridiculed by every
satirist, yet they increase. Every year makes fresh accessions to their
ranks, and their follies and extravagances multi