Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-27
SHABBY GENrILIrY.
How New York Women Seek to Hide
Their Poverty.


Zone half the people ofNew York live"
said a philosopher the other day, e'and the
other half pretend to live" This is truer
than most people suspect. The number
of persons who give their lives to making
an appearance is astonishing. and the de-
vices to which they resort to be thought
genteel, and 10 avoid working for living.
would astonish the world if fully ex-
posed.
One Of the most interesting cases of
shabby 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 apart
ments, next to the servants, who take
their meals at cheap restaurants or beer
saloons, but who dress well and use
monogram note paper, and receive their
company in the hotel parlor. and gener-
ally assume the style and airs of retired
well-tO-do people.
In one case recently brought to the at
tentiOn of the writer lady and her two
daughters occupied rooms at one of the
most fashionable hotels in the CITY for two
years. Her daughters furnished the in
come by very hard work-one of them as
a cOpyist, and the other in a large tele-
graphic house. But no one in the hotel
ever suspected that they depended upon
their labor for their income. The Young
ladies made together about S25 or $50 a
week, and on this sum they managed bv
the most pinching economy in eating to
dress well and move in a certain circle.
But the air of disdain with which they
spoke Of people who were compelled to
work and the poetic references they con-
stantly made of their blood and ancestry
produced the most respectful treatment
from all who came in contact with them.
young lady and her father. who lived
at the Westminster for some time and
passed as belle in certain sets, worked
In a boOkblnder'S establishments Nassau
street, and actually supported her father
III his genteel airs. In this case it came
to the knowledge of the writer that this
young lady, on more than one occasion.
went supperless to bed because she had
to pay for coupe.
Another form OF pretentiOus gentility is
found in those families that hire houses.
and then sublet all but a couple of rooms.
retaining the use of the parlOr to make
show, and always turning up their noses
at people who are compelled to live in
mats. 20 We" they always say, couldn't
be restricted to a fiat, you know. 1t NAV
do for people who have never had the free
dom OF whole house, but we must have
our own establishment" If they live in
basement house they have to put up
sometimes with a doctor or a dentist. but
they compromise by calling his room the
library when they have a party.
There are hundreds of genteel people
liVlng on Lexington avenue who, for
the sake of making it appear that they
occupy whole house to themselves. are
content to bunk in the garnet and cook
with the oil stove. But they make enough
off their wages to dress well and have a
coach and livery take them to the park in
the afternoon.
1t is said by those who know that the
gay caYalcade to be seen on pleasant af-
ternOOn on the avenue is made I'D in nm
equal portions Of milliOnaires and beg
CARS, who, so far as dress is concerned.
cannot he distinguished from each other.
In the ranks of the operatives who live
on the East Side it is curious to know that
coach is the sign of gentility. To be
able to hire a coach is the weakness of
hundreds of girls who work by the week
downtown. and it is tor this reason, per-
maps, that In the poorer classes funerals
nave become sort of evidence of GEN.
tility, 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 stable. They are driven to their
pupils houses in cOupes, and they are
very particular about the livery.
The superintendent of large envelope
factory in this city said that some years
49, letiAtlh5 CBiAclllIC DIOke out among
his girls. Without any premonition what
ever an operator would suddenly fall over
as If dead, and he was in the habit some
times OF calling a carriage and sending
the invalid home. But when the thing
grew to affect the whole factory he turned
one of his rooms into a hospital and he
hired doctor to apply restOratiYes, from
which moment not girl tainted. 1t was
not till some time after that he discovered
by accident that it was the ride home in
the coach that had brought on the cpl
demic.