OLD LONDON'S SOCIAL SET 203 



lace collars, and often wore lace half gloves 

 and, always talked about the dead. Some 

 used plumpers in their cheeks. Seldom were 

 there any children around for me to play 

 with; but a black man always brought in a 

 tray of liquor or bottle of Orak and for my 

 mother a pot of Ceylon tea, for her family 

 never touched liquor. My grandfather had 

 started the New York Temperance Society, 

 the object of which, as I remember, was to 

 abolish the use of liquor at funerals, and 

 from this the National Temperance Society 

 sprang of which my uncle was the Presi- 

 dent. There were few marriageable men, 

 and of these many remained bachelors and 

 some old medical records and correspond- 

 ence I procured indicate that the majority 

 were blanks. Their seed lacked fertility. 



An analogous state of affairs occurred in 

 London, England, between the years 1600 

 and 1700. It was such a shock when it sud- 

 denly dawned on London's smart set — their 

 commercial social set — that an investiga- 

 tion was made. It was discovered that 

 almost all of the old families of London had 

 died out; while the families of the Court 



