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Not First Class
The late Peter Cooper Hewitt, millionaire inventor of New York, had a very intimate knowledge of high society in the world’s capitals.
Mr. Cooper Hewitt, discussing the English professional beauties of the ’80’s, said one day:
“A famous, or rather a notorious professional beauty, visited Constantinople. Her charms worked havoc among the Turkish nobility. The sultan himself was smitten.
“At a dinner party on her return, King Edward, then the Prince of Wales, questioned her about her Turkish conquests.
“‘You made a great hit with the sultan, I believe?’ he said.
“‘The sultan,’ she answered with enthusiasm, ‘is a dear. He conferred this decoration on me.’
“And she displayed a jeweled emblem which glistened on her white bosom royally.
“‘It’s the order of virtue,’ she explained, and then, lowering her eyes, she added—‘of the second class.’”