Books: Record of the Rich

• Share

"KING LEHR" AND THE GILDED AGE— Elizabeth Drexel Lehr—Lippincott ($3).

In Paris in 1929 Mrs. Elizabeth Drexel Lehr heard that her husband was dead. To the daughter of Philadelphia Banker Joseph William Drexel, that event meant that the "tragic farce" of a 28-year marriage had ended, that she was now free to tell her story. A bitter, disillusioned book, "King Lehr" is memorable for the lurid light it throws on U. S. Society of the Gilded Age, may confidently be opened as one of the most startling and scandalously intimate records of life among the wealthy yet written by one of them.

A young widow when Edith Gould introduced her to Harry Symes Lehr, Elizabeth Drexel was amused and entertained by him, found him tactful, with a flair for drawing out unsuspected talents, with an al- most feminine desire to please and say the right thing. Penniless, Lehr was a "little brother of the rich," hobnobbed with Wanamakers, Goulds, Fishes, Astors, Oelrichs. Born in Baltimore, son of a once-wealthy importer, he consciously made entertaining rich people his career. Tom Wanamaker was glad to let him occupy his apartment. Wetzel made his clothes free. Kaskel & Kaskel gave him the latest designs in shirts and underwear, only asked that he let it be discreetly known where he got them. Black, Starr & Frost provided watches and cigaret-cases. Mrs. Clarence Mackay got her husband to let him send Postal telegrams for nothing. Mrs. Fish, Mrs. Gould and Mrs. Vanderbilt gave him passes on their husbands' railroads. He advised women on their clothes and social affairs and husbands did not distrust him. Among multimillionaires who, as Elizabeth Drexel Lehr says, "might hold up the market but could not prevent conversation slumping heavily at their own tables." Lehr's levity and social resourcefulness made him a valued companion, although malicious society writers sometimes made fun of his spectacular dress, his talent for taking feminine roles at amateur theatricals.

Sentimental, unworldly Elizabeth Drexel was amused and touched when Harry Lehr told her of the difficulties of living by one's wits. Courtship was brief and high-minded, although Elizabeth was hurt that Lehr pressed her for exact details of her fortune, wanted a marriage settlement. She gave him $25,000 a year and expenses. When he took his fiancee to lunch with Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. Oelrichs, Mrs. Belmont, they passed judgment on her, told him frankly, "We will make her the fashion. You need have no fear." But on their wedding night he dined alone, then, pale and nervous, told her that he had married her for her money, did not and never would love her, at last confessed that she was physically repulsive to him.