New York Society's Four Hundred
Ward McAllister, Social Arbiter of the Gay Nineties
A look at New York society of the 1890's and the man who decided that only four hundred people belonged in that rarified atmosphere.
Ward McAllister, social mentor to Mrs.William B. Astor, one of New York City's toniest socialites, coined the term "four hundred " when he insisted that there were only four hundred people in New York worthy of being included in his socially restricted colony. How did he get that number? He mused that Mrs. Astor's ballroom would hold only four hundred people and in 1888 was quoted in the New York Tribune as saying, "There are only four hundred people in fashionable New York society...if you go outside that number , you strike people who are either not at ease in a ballroom or else make other people not at ease."
Ancestors
Ward McAllister came from a formidable family tree, which included being a direct descendant, on his mother's side, of Charlotte Corday, who assassinated Jean-Paul Murat. He was also a collateral descendant of General Francis Marion, the American Revolution's Swamp Fox. He was also a cousin of Samuel Ward, and Julia Ward Howe. Through marriage he became related to the Chanlers and Astors of New York and the Appletons and Princes of Boston, which no doubt whetted his appetite for social interaction.
Society
McAllister passed the bar exam and went to San Francisco in 1850, at the age of twenty-three. He made a killing in the law practice and returned to New York in 1852 to begin his new career."Society," he said, " tended to stimulate all the higher arts that satisfy esthetic wants." To this end he married Sarah T.Gibbons in 1853. She was the daughter of a millionaire who owned extensive real estate in the New York Harbor area. However, she was ill for most of the marriage and was unable to join Ward in his high society forays.
Homes
Ward McAllister soon purchased two homes, one, a pied a terre on Sixteenth Street in New York City and the main residence "Bayfield Farm" in Newport. Here at Bayfield, he entertained lavishly at his 'fetes champetres' as he styled the picnics he held. In New York he entertained at Delmonico's Restaurant, a fashionable establishment at Fifth Avenue and Sixteenth Street.
Social Advice
McAllister had advice for would-be socialites in a book he wrote in 1890, where he laid down several rules to follow for successs in high society.
- If you want to be fashionable, be always in the company of fashionable people
- A gentleman can always walk, but he cannot afford to show a shabby equipage
- When you entertain, do it in an easy, natural way, as if it were an everyday occurrence, not the event of your life
Ward McAllister died on January 31, 1895, after a short illness described as grippe, and the idea of the Four Hundred soon followed him when people began to realize how foolish they had been in observing his rules of conduct for social climbers.
Source: The New York Times, January 29, 1967, by Russell Edwards.
