National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-26
GOTHAM GOSSIP
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
Cleaning the Strcets-A Big Undertaking - The
New Art Of C0okin: WHAT We Are to
Eat-Depew as a Diner-Out
Music Notes.

| Specialize The Republican.
| New YORK, March 25.-Did l not say
| that the key note of the fashions was metallic!
| There is such a preponderanee of steel hats ana
bonnets exhibited in the Openings which have
occurred this week that one thinks with shudder
of the fatal accidents which would befau the fash
ionable world in case the ladies were caught out
| in thunderstorm. Sometimes the frame OF the
bonnet is covered smoothly with fabric Of steel,
sometimes after row of steel lace is laid over
| silk of the same shade and sometimes the steel
lace is disposed in full ruchings In dresses theFe
| is the same rage for steel trimmings in buttons
fringes laces and beaded fabric. Fashion DEGREES
that we shall go forth clad in armor. But against
this gray steel background the most delicate cotors
! are worm The bonnets are decorated with rose
pink ribbon, and the garniture of the dress Is re-
lieved with Innings and facinEs of the same deli
cate hue. have as yet seen but one spring bon
| net worn; for while New York is as bright as
| May morning With all these new and pretty
things in the stores in the streets we still wear our
old Clothes for the cold weather warns us to re-
tain our winter wraps. We now begin to believe
| that we shall have
| OUR STREETS CLEANED.
| There have been meetings of popular indigna-
| ton against the existing dirt; committees have
been sppointes5 the Legislature has been besieged;
We are going to have an entirely new broom, and
| nobody knows what treasures may be excavated
when it is once fairly at work. 1t is field werthy
of DR.. Schliemans attention. There seem 10 DC
excellent chances for discovering small boys VINO
have mysteriousy disappeared stray dogs and
cats, dead horses missing bank presidents andthe
| fragments Of 4Aroken banks. But, whatever the
bottom facts are, the heroic twenty-five VINO nave
undertaken to see that the city is cleaned intend
to find them. This effort is undertaken with that
earnestness Of spirit which suggests last resort
If this fails the case is hopeless, and we will be
obliged to emigrate to Inwood, Hoboken, or some
other foreign country, unless, indeed, we go to Chi
| cago for the exposition, which we seem unlikely
to have here. In recent issue of Food and Health,
journal which is attracting much attention from
| its new and common n-sense departure from the
| usual sanitary twaddle, saw this conundrum pro-
pounded:
ARE YOU REALLY CLEAS?
Now, we may not be pious, but we fondly supposed
that the next thing to it till we were told
| that ordinary ablutions would not give the de-
sired cleanliness Nothing short of the bath, which
brought the skin into activity and induced health
| full perspiration, could be depended upon. The
city. think, will need something which will cor
| respond with this Russian bath to put it in first
class order. The garbage may be removed from
the sidewalks, the filth from the the cutters, but
fear that malaria and epidemic diseases will
prevail until the bad sewerage of the houses
is remedied, the ventilation improved, and
the abominG5ly dirty old wool carpets re-
placed by hard wood floors, with rugs and
mats, which can be thoroughly cleansed.
We are now on the top of the aesthetic wave. We
have high art tables chairs, and china; we have
resurrected the Mother Hubbard cloak and the
poke bonnet, and we are ready for something new.
The indications seem to point out that this new
something shall be in the direction of the house
hold. Not only does the needlework and the
china decoration give an aesthetic preparation
for more active and intelligent interest in the
home, but one may read the signs Of the times in
the newspapers. Nearly every paper which have
read during the last month has had in it some ref
erence to theHpreparation of food Some of the ar
ticles have been descriptive of the cooking
established in our large cities.
THE. AUSTRIAN LADIES OF RANK
and their kitchen education have come in for 8
large share of the notices. and wise editorials have
drawn comparisons unfayOrable. To our Ameri-
can girls, who are ignorant Of most things per-
tanning to the cuisine, the household habits of
English, French Hungarian, Polish, and even
Zulu ladies have been described and copied from
paper to paper with that persistence which is an
unmistakable indication of popular interest and
which goes to show that the rext fashion will be
for an education in domestic affairs.
"wE ARE WHAT WE EATi"
says Mry Lewis, the editor of Food and Health
then Heaye1help those who subsst on boarding
house hashD, "and we must supply the waste con-
stantly taking place by just such things as are
necessary TO build up the body But the apostle
of this new gospel is not radical insisting upon
diet of vegetables and cold water, or a regimen
of oatmeal and stewed prunes; she does not advo-
cate dining Off of a crust or living on q straw q
day. On the contrary, she recommends what we
used to call in San Francisco square meal"
though like Holmes, she appears to be reasonable
and think that
"Three courses are as goCd as ten,
If nature is content with three,
Thank Heaven for three-amenw
But from large and varied bill of fare there
must be care and intelligence used in the selec-
tion and then the cooking must be par GtcelleRce.
1t is one thing 10 have reputation as dinner
givcr, and quite another to be known as diner
state dinners than any other man i'll the country.
He is the diner-out par excellence of the city. He
must be at the Knckerbocker dinner, because he
is a representative New Yorker-a descendant of
the old Dutch settlers; at the St. Patricks Day din
ner he is the honored guest, because he has a
clever way of saying that the Irish have taken
possession, and are the only natiYes-the rest of
us are foreigners; at the Union League, the
Lotos, and the Century Clubs he talks
ter how tempting the alsRU, the dinner, !
to be success, must announce Depew among the
guests.
MUSICAL NOTES.
The sensation in the musical world has been