CROSS-COUNTRY
703
larger city are the more terrible living quarters. Nor do housing projects
rise appreciably from these sprawling, crime-breeding areas.
Philadelphia was offered funds for housing improvement during
New Deal times, but the Republican old guard would have none of the
Democratic socialistic gold; and these days private investment perhaps
sensibly will not trust the competence of the city administrators.
The outward sprawl of the city began with the consolidation of
many small communities into the metropolis in 1854. And with the
convenient "Main Line" (to Chicago ) tracks the PRR laid to the west,
the "three hundred" owners of the city were able to develop a sort of
myopia towards the place from which they extracted theit fortunes.
They moved west, but not very far. They built their large houses of
English and Colonial design in and near the small communities on
either side of the tracks (both sides good), and used the exceptionally
good commuter service the railroad provided them for egress to and
exit from the city. Thus: the "Main Line," synonymous with Phila–
delphia society and old trust fund money and leisurely living. Ardmore,
St. David's, Bryn Mawr, and Wayne-these have a meaning for Phila–
delphians, for here and in places like them, the aristocracy lives. I
heard someone say that for these commuters the fountains in Logan
Circle are turned on, as they begin to emerge from the large and
handsome Suburban Station, and stop at ten o'clock when all of them
are in. Add the names of Chestnut Hill, and Cynwyd, and Haverford.
Think of horse-breeding and debutantes and the fox-hunt. From these
communities, from this set (with the exception of a hardy few who still
inhabit the Rittenhouse Square area of the central city) come those
who may attend the august Assembly balls. The
Nouveaux-riches,
and
even some members of the middling classes, have managed to join their
c0mpany out in that fertile rolling country (twenty electrified minutes to
the heart of the city) but they cannot go to the Assembly or ride the
white horses of the First City Troop.
Here children are taught to sit a horse before they attend the
kmdergartens of "select" private schools. It was from this section that
Philip Barry drew dubious inspiration for "The Philadelphia Story"
and it was against its shibboleths and ingrained ways that poor Kitty
Foyle ran afoul, thereafter to nurse memories and the child that had
been impregnated in her by this particular variety of blue blood.
This aristocracy, though its members still do much of the behind
the scene running of the city, and are important in state affairs too, has
tcnded to run a bit to seed. The Main Line never got cafe society like
New York, or reached the cultured status of the Boston Brahmins.
