The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1883-06-07
Shabby oENr1Liry.
Women Of New York who ipbcr To screen
Thai, poyerty From Fashions Eye.

,yomen Of New York who Lsbor Ia Screen
Their Poverty From Fashions Eye
zone half the people IN New York live"
said a philosopher the other day, "and the
other half pretend TO live This is truer
than most people suspect. The number oil
persons who give their lives to making All
appearance Is astonishing, and the devices
to which they resort to to be thought gem
teel and to avoid working for a living
would astonish the world if fully exposed
One of the most interesting cases OF shaD-
by genteel will be found at the Family
Hotel. Every one of these establishments
has one or more dodgers who live in the top
of the house in the cheapest apartments,
next to the servants; who take their meals
at cheap restaurants or beer saloons, OUT
who dress we'll. and use monogram note
paper, and receive their company IN the
hotel parler, and generally assume the
style and airs of retired well-to-do people.
In one case recently brought to the at
teution of the writer, a lady ana her Two
daughters occupied rooms at one OF the
most fashionable hotels in the city LOT Two
years. Her daughters furnished the income
by very hard work, one of them as a copy
list, and the other in a large
telegraphic house. But no one IN the
hotel ever suspected that they depended
upon their labor for their income. The
Young ladies made together about $50 or
$50 a week, and on this sum they man
aged, by the most pinching economy III
eating, to dress well and move III a certain
circle. But the ar of disdain with when
they spoke OF people who were compslieu 10
work, and the poetic references they con-
stantlv made 10 their blood and ancestry,
produced the most respectful treatment
from all who came in contact with them.
A Young lady and her father, who lived
at the Westminster for some time ana
passed as a belle in certain sets, worked III
a book. binders establishment in Nassau
street, and actually supported her father IN
his genteel airs. In this case il came to the
knowledge of the writer that this young
lady, on more han one occasion, went sup
PEERLESS to bed because she had TO pay lor a
coupe. :.
Another form of pretentious gentility is
found in those families that hire houses ana
then sublet all but a couple OF rooms, re-
tanning the use OF the parior for TO make a
show, and always turning up their noses at
people who are compelled to live in flats.
30, We" they always say, couldn't be re-
stric,ed to a fiat, you know. 1t may do for
people who have never had the freedom OF
a whole house, but we must have our own
establishment" If they live in a base
ment house they have to put up sometimes
with a doctor or a dentist, but they Com
promise by calling his room the llbaary
when they have a party.
There are hundreds of genteel people
living on Lexington avenue, who Tor the
sake of making it appear that they
occupy a whole house themselves, are con-
tent to bunk in the garrett and cook with
the oil stove. But they make enough OIL
their wages TO dress well and have a coach
and livery take them to the park in the
afterDood. ~
1t is said, by those who know, that the
gay cavalcade to be seen or a pleasant
afternoon on the avenue is made up in I'M
equal proportions of millionaires and beg
gars, who, so far as dress is concerned, can
not be distinguished from each other.
In the ranks of the operatives who live on
the east side it is strange to know that a
coach is the sign of gentility. 10 be able to
hire a coach is the weakness of hundreds of
aB tGss wno and GiA it is tor this
reason, perhaps, that in the poorer classes
funerals have become a sort of evidence OF
gentility, the condition OF the family being
rated by the number of coaches. There are
scores of girls who give music lessons who
spend nearly all they make at the livery
5 able. They are driven to their pupils
houses in coupes, and they are very particu-
lar about the livery.
The superintendent ofa large envelope
factory in this city said that some years
ago a faintIng epidemic broke out among
his girls. Without any premonition what
ever, an operator would suddenly fall over
as If dead, and was in the habit sometime
OF calling a carriage and sending the inva-
lid home. But when the thing grew to
effect the whole factory, he turned one OF
his rooms into a hospital and he hired a
doctor to apply restoratives, from which
moment not a girl tainted. 1t was not till
some time after that be discovered by scci-
dent that 1t was the ride home In the coach
that had brought on the epidemic New
York Journal.