O'Henry's story, Transients of Arcadia is illustrating the age old idea that "money brings happiness" and only the rich can be happy. The story begins with the author describing a serene, almost heavenly hotel that a small number of elite people stay in the summer. The author draws a fine line between the rich and the poor by portraying Madame Beaumont and Farrington as these wealthy, prosperous people, but in actuality are poor themselves. The society in the story gives power to the affluent and renders the poor as unhappy people who are on the pursuit of gaining even a small portion of that happiness.
Transients of Arcadia begins with the Author, O' Henry describing Hotel Lotus as a getaway place for a few wealthy people who are fortunate enough to have discovered it. The Hotel in Broadway is where you would find the best of everything whether it be fish, or meat. The story says that the few people who have found the hotel are the happy ones, stating "They are happy to be there, and happy to know they are very few" (O' Henry 1). The guests of the hotel are waited on hand and foot and are brought anything their hearts desire "before anyone asks for it" (1). The hotel is the perfect place for the few that find it, and anything they want is brought to them. Madame Beaumont is described as the epitome of elegance and perfection for the hotel. The guests described her as perfection, and the employee's fought just to serve her. According to the people at the hotel she was the living embodiment of rich and powerful, being described as having " white hands that held the future of certain nations" (2). As for Ferrington he was also illustrated as a person who was accepted into the high society of Hotel Lotus. He was "a man who traveled and could understand the world" (3), like Beaumont. They both were accepted into the Hotel for being rich but in reality we find out that both of them are not as wealthy as they make themselves out to be.