Mary Cable > Quotes

“Those who craved power had to belong to, or get into, the top of the upper class, because that was where power resided. The upper-upper class controlled the big corporations, the banks, the law, and the brokerage firms. Although few upper-class members took an active role in politics - some exceptions were the two Roosevelts, John Hay, Nicholas Longworth, the Hamilton Fish family, and the Tafts - there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes influencing. In order to share in that power, it was necessary not only to be rich but also to be one of the people-we-know.”
― Mary Cable, Top Drawer: American High Society from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties

“New Yorkers who had gone to bed on Sunday evening to the sound of rain were startled on Monday morning to find snow sifting in through cracks around their windows and piling up in front of their doors so fast that even those who left home at dawn had to dig their way out.”
― Mary Cable, The Blizzard of 88