A Fierce Discontent

Cornelia Bradley Martin was a member of a group known as “the upper ten,” or the upper ten thousand; this refers to the ten thousand wealthiest people living in New York City—and later, the entire United States—before and around the turn of the 20th century. When there was an economic depression during the winter of 1897, Bradley Martin hosted a costume ball for her fellow New York City elites rumored to cost thousands of dollars. Bradley Martin wanted the ball well publicized and most local newspapers obliged. Her extravagant party, however, did not receive the kind of feedback for which she hoped: Pastors and reverends around the city urged their wealthy parishioners not to attend, claiming that the ball would fuel the fires of strife already in existence between the upper and working classes in America. They believed that the working class—many of who struggled to even eat that winter—would resent such a display. The working class, it turned out, was not the only social group that resented the Bradley Martins’ rich display; elite members of the press and members of the city’s elite clubs condemned the Bradley Martins’ ball as foolish and stupid. Municipal officials raised the family’s taxes and the Bradley Martins were thereby alienated by members of their own class.