On February 10, 1897, New York City society gathered at the Waldorf Hotel, guests of Mrs. Cornelia Bradley Martin. Guests donned 16th, 17th and 18th century costumes; the hostess herself came as Mary Queen of Scots. Not content to pay homage to only one doomed monarch, Mrs. Bradley Martin added a necklace once worn by Marie Antoinette. Her husband, a New York lawyer, dressed as Louis XIV – the sun king. Workers decorated and prepared the ballroom for the event. The Bradley-Martin had ordered flowers from all over the world. Protecting the party goers which included many prominent people such as J.P. Morgan, his niece Pierpont Morgan, Theodore Roosevelt, his wife, and so much more, were the New York City police led by Inspector Cortright. Security …show more content…
While parts of New York City society eagerly anticipated the ball – reports of which could regularly be found in the New York Times society pages – others openly criticized the event’s opulence and extravagance. Rev. Dr. William Rainsford, a rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, for example, condemned “all ostentatious display of wealth as ill advised,” and urged members of his congregations including J.P. Morgan not to attend the event. Rev. Dr. Madison Peters agreed that “all history teaches that the concentration of wealth is the forerunner of social upheaval.” It is little wonder that there was such concern over social upheaval. The 1890s had been marked by Pullman strike, Homestead strike, Populist Party, and so on. This is true considering how the gap between the rich and poor due to this unequal concentration of wealth led to unfair working conditions of the poor been trampled upon by the employers. This later on led to the uprising of unions such as the Knights of Labor (1869) and the American Federation of Labor (1886) who fought against unfairness at workplace and towards making working life suitable for the working class. …show more content…
In his “gospel of wealth,” Carnegie stressed on how “the millionaire is nothing but a trustee of the poor.” He also insisted that “it was a disgrace for a man to die rich and that only great munificence could justify great wealth.” Rockefeller in particular stated that, “God gave him his money and that it was not his to keep.” He went further to say how “he was only its temporary steward, charged with distributing it to worthy to worthy causes and recipients,” even though he did not make this move until he retired. Jackson Lears revealed however, that Carnegie’s commitment to the simple life was more fiction than fact and like Rockefeller, Carnegie “privately profited from speculation while publicly disdaining it.” For example, Carnegie profited from the Panic of 1873; the demand for steel had “rebounded and then soared” during this period due to the over-speculation in the railroad industry which led to the financial