Doctorow gives us an America that is extremely class conscious, putting it subtly and yet powerfully in the images he draws:
One evening after the performance Houdini’s manager told him of being called by Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish of 78th Street, who wanted to book Houdini for a private party. (. . .) Mrs. Fish was throwing a commemorative ball in honor of her friend the late Stanford White, the architect of her home. He had designed her home in the style of a doge palace. A doge was the chief magistrate in the republic of Genoa or Venice. I won’t have nothing to do with those people, Houdini told his manager. (p. 35)
But when the price is doubled, Houdini agrees. There is much truth in Doctorow’s assessment of the social strata of the era–and yet it is a deeper image of the nature of mankind. Even as he displays the wealthy as frivolous and uncaring, just by this episode he shows that money is the driving force among the poor as well. Does it matter what one does to make money? Is compromise different at one level than at another?
Capitalism has its evils, but without it, there would be little accomplishment in the industrial revolution of a country. It appears from this segment of story that there is benefit to all; those with a lot of money spend it, thus filtering it down to the rest of the population, just as capital venture creates employment.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology