LAUGH AND LIE DOWN
53
pink instruments called Flents, "the magical ear stopples." For night
motoring, to shut out the glare of approaching headlights, they buy
eyeglasses with the upper half smoked. ("Ground to your own pre-
scription and mounted in white gold, they cost from $18 up.") For
daytime motoring they have the Sunair Auto Top Co. put sliding
roofs on their cars at $250 each. Their women have many special
problems, with appropriate solutions. A recent technological advance
is the "windshield-wiper" powder compact, which has an arm that
automatically wipes clean the mirror when the compact is opened
($6.50 up).
It would be rash to assume that most of the 120,444 people who
read the
New
r
orker
every week are plutocratic enough to buy $50
shoes and $120 curtains. A survey of the financial status of the aver-
age reader might reveal score interesting things. It is quite possible
that most readers of the
New
r
orker
J
like most movie-goers, are com-
paratively humble folk who are willing to pay a small admission fee
for a peep into the
haul monde.
Such people sight well enjoy reading
tips on expensive living with not the slightest thought of making use
of the information. For all one knows, the center of gravity of' the
New Yorker's circulation may be closer to Lexington Avenue than
to Park Avenue. In this country, of all countries, the class war is
complicated by the persistence of the old American custom of keeping
up with the Joneses.
