Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-06-02
SHABBY GENTILlTY.
Women ofNeW York Who Labor
TO Screen Their Poverty
from FASHIONS Eye.
New York Journal.

day, and the 0tner nalt pretend Z
| live" This is truer than most peopl
suppose. The number OF persons Wit
give their lives to making an appear
ance is astonishing, aud the devices t
which they resort to he thought gen
teel and to avoid working for a liYial
would astonish the wcrldtit fully ex
posed.
One Of the most Interesting cases o.
shabby genteel viii be found at the
Family Hotel. Every one of these
establishments has one or more lodg
ers who live in the top Of the house in
the cheapest apartments, next to
the servants or beer saloons, but who
dress we'll, and use monogram note
paper, and receive their company in
the hotel parlor. and generally assume
the style and airs of retired we'll to Go
people. F.eE r,FE
10 one case recently brought to the
attention of the writer, lady and her
two daughters occupied rooms a. one
of the most fashionable hotels in the
city for two years. Her daughters
furnished the income by very hard
work; one of them as a oopyist. and
the other in a large telegrsphic house.
But no one in the hotel ever suspects
ed that they depended upon their
labor for their income. The young
ladies made together about SIS or $50
q week, and on this sum they managed,
by the most pinching economy in eat
ing, to dress we'll and move IN GER
tain circle. But the air of disdlin
with which they spoke of people who
we're compelled to work, and the
poetic references they constantly
made to their blood ard ancestry pro
duced the most respectful treatment
from all who came in contact with
them. es
A young lady and her father, who
lived at the Westminster for some
time end passed as belle in certain
sets, worked in bookbinder's estab-
lishment in Nassau street, and actual>
ly supported her father in bis genteel
airs. In this case it came to the
knowedge Of the writer that this young
lady, on more than enc occasion, went
supperless to bed because she had to
pay for a coupe.
Another form Of pretentious gentih-
ty is found in those families that hire
houses, and then sublet all but
couple of rooms. retaining the use Of
the p2rlor to make show, aud always
turning up their noses at people who
are compelled to live in fats. "Oh,
we" they always say, couldn't be re-
stricted to a fat, you know. l. may do
for people who have never had the
freedom of q whole house, but We
must have our own establishment" "
If they live 10 a basement house they
have TO put up sometimes with doc
tor or dentist, but they compromise
by calling his room the library when
they have party.
There are hundreds Of genteel PEG
pie living on Lexington avenue, who.
for the sake of making it appear that
they occupy a whole house to them
selves, are content to bunk in the gar.
ret and cook With the oil stove. But
they make enough of their wages TO
dress we'll and have a coach and livery
to take them to the park in the after
noon.
1t is said. by those VINO know, that
the gay eayalcade to be seen on
pleasant afternoon on the avenue is
made up in unequal proportions OF
millionaires and beggars, who, so far
ss dress is concerned. cannot be dis
tinguished from each other.
In the ranks OF the operatives who
live on the east side it is curious to
know that coach is the sigh OF gen.
nifty. To be able to hire coach is
the weakness Of hundreds Of girls who
Esrk by the week down town, and it
is for this reason, perhaps, that in the
poorer classes funerals have become a
sort Of evidence of Rentility, the con-
dition 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, aud
they are very particular about the
livery.
The superintendent of a large en-.
velope factory in this city said that
some years ago a fainting epidemic
broke out among his girls. Without
any premonition whatever an operator
would suddenly fall over as If dead :,
and was in the habit sometimes OF
calling a carriaQe and sending the in
valid home. But when the thing
grew to affect the whole factory, he
turned one Of his rooms into a hospi
tai and he hired q doctor to apply re-
storatives, from which moment not a
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
epidemic.
Ladies and siekly girls requiringa non
alcoholic gentle stimu ant, will find
Browns Iron Bitters beneficial.
FATAL HEROIsM.