The 30,000 Dollar Bequest and Other Stories eBook


Rich American girls do buy titles, but they did not invent that idea; it had been worn threadbare several hundred centuries before America was discovered.  European girls still exploit it as briskly as ever; and, when a title is not to be had for the money in hand, they buy the husband without it.  They must put up the “dot,” or there is no trade.  The commercialization of brides is substantially universal, except in America.  It exists with us, to some little extent, but in no degree approaching a custom.

“The Englishman dearly loves a lord.”

What is the soul and source of this love?  I think the thing could be more correctly worded: 

“The human race dearly envies a lord.”

That is to say, it envies the lord’s place.  Why?  On two accounts, I think:  its Power and its Conspicuousness.

Where Conspicuousness carries with it a Power which, by the light of our own observation and experience, we are able to measure and comprehend, I think our envy of the possessor is as deep and as passionate as is that of any other nation.  No one can care less for a lord than the backwoodsman, who has had no personal contact with lords and has seldom heard them spoken of; but I will not allow that any Englishman has a profounder envy of a lord than has the average American who has lived long years in a European capital and fully learned how immense is the position the lord occupies.

Of any ten thousand Americans who eagerly gather, at vast inconvenience, to get a glimpse of Prince Henry, all but a couple of hundred will be there out of an immense curiosity; they are burning up with desire to see a personage who is so much talked about.  They envy him; but it is Conspicuousness they envy mainly, not the Power that is lodged in his royal quality and position, for they have but a vague and spectral knowledge and appreciation of that; though their environment and associations they have been accustomed to regard such things lightly, and as not being very real; consequently, they are not able to value them enough to consumingly envy them.

But, whenever an American (or other human being) is in the presence, for the first time, of a combination of great Power and Conspicuousness which he thoroughly understands and appreciates, his eager curiosity and pleasure will be well-sodden with that other passion—­envy —­whether he suspects it or not.  At any time, on any day, in any part of America, you can confer a happiness upon any passing stranger by calling his attention to any other passing stranger and saying: 

“Do you see that gentleman going along there?  It is Mr. Rockefeller.”

Watch his eye.  It is a combination of power and conspicuousness which the man understands.

When we understand rank, we always like to rub against it.  When a man is conspicuous, we always want to see him.  Also, if he will pay us an attention we will manage to remember it.  Also, we will mention it now and then, casually; sometimes to a friend, or if a friend is not handy, we will make out with a stranger.

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