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Antiques.
In Boston they ask, How much does he know? in New York, How much is he worth? in Philadelphia, Who were his parents? Mark Twain, "What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us," North American Review, January 1895
By 1900 the city of New York covered more than three hundred square miles and was home to three million people. It was the richest city in the world and second only to London in size. Commerce was the secret of the city's success, and New York's magnificent harbor was the secret to the city's commercial importance.
After the Civil War, New York's old rich were engulfed by a tidal wave of robber barons intent on mining the city's advantages to advance their fortunes. Led by John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and John Pierpont Morgan, they established their company headquarters in New York City. The old guard struck back when Ward McAllister decreed the existence of the Four Hundred--that being the number of people with a traceable lineage of at least three generations who could fit into Mrs. William Astor's ballroom. Thenceforth, the Four Hundred ruled the social scene of winters in New York City and summers in huge "cottages" in Newport, Rhode Island.
The robber barons, by contrast, were autocratic. Their mansions swept up Fifth Avenue. There was an influx of commuter trains in Grand Central Terminal. Large department stores opened so that they could spend their money conveniently in one place. E. L. Godkin, one of the founders of the Nation, described the United States in 1866 as a "gaudy stream of bespangled, belaced, and beruffled barbarians.... Who knows how to be rich in America? Plenty of people know how to get money; but ... to be rich properly is, indeed, a fine art. It requires culture, imagination, and character."
Yet a spirit of noblesse oblige prevailed with the robber barons, who ...
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Source: HighBeam Research, Antiques.