Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-30
LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS.
"A Budget of Interesting Gossip on
People and ThinOs


People and Things.
NEW YORK, July 26.-'rhe telegraphic
strike up to yesterday seemed a game of
brag, but it now begins to look as if the
strikers held the cards. Had they strllck
at buster time of the year, it is not i'm
probable that all the soulless corpora
! tions would have surrendered by this
time. As it is, numberless messages have
been delayed for days, but, as | antici-
pated, the boycOtting of business has not
been strict enough to bring back to Wall
street many Of those operators who, Sc
cluded IN the country, are accustomed to
| speculate by means of the telegraph.
One reason for this, perhaps, is that the
stock market has been, because of the
strike. too dull for speculation.
A significant feature of the strike has
been the general unanimity with which
the Republican newspapers have upheld
the cause of the companies and have de-
nounced the strikers. 1t merely proves,
however, that the Republican party is the
rich mans party-a fact which poor men
ought to have learned by this time. Next
year will show whether they have learned
it.
III the striking telegraphers would only
turn walters and serve meals at hotels
and restaurants with the same speed with
which they dispatch messages, thev
would make far better wages than they
would, even if the Western Union Welded
to their demands.
THE FOREIGN CUSTOM
of feeling or tipping servants in caravan
sarles, imported into this country by those
Americans who are nothing if not aping
European manners, tlOurishes here with
IuXurlance unknown to the places in
which 1t originated. The fee to the waiter
who serves one at such resorts as DeImoni-
eos and the Hotel Brunswick actually
forms considerable portion of the total
cost OF the meal. AS an illustration of the
amount expected by waiter, let me re-
late the experience of a lady and gentle
man who had ice cream and cake at the
Brunswick the other afternoon. The bill
was dollar, or thereabOuts, and the
waiter was told that he might keep the
change, which was ten cents. The man.
IN place OF pOcketing what was a commits
sion OF ten per cent, threw the coin on
the table with an exclamation Indicating
his contempt at the smallness of the
dOuceuF!
If those of the telegraphers who have
taste for culinary art were to become
cooks, they might make even more money
than as walters. The chefs at the better
class of hotels and clubs are paid, it is
said, from $35 to 800 a week. although, of
course, the latter sum is exceptional. and
is only given to that individual favored by
the gods who has a genius for cooking as
Napoleon had for war. The cooks who
are at the head of their profession have,
indeed made corner in cookery, and
are mOnopOlists of the first water.
owen Meredith, the present Lord Lytton,
has probably produced this state of things
by his lines in ''Lucille:"
We may live without poetry. music and art.
we may 1--we without love, we may live with
We may live without friends. we NAV live
without books,
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
We may live without love-what is passion
but pinng?
But where's the man that can live without
dining?
This confession of our entire dependence
on the culinary profession, which, by the
way, being quoted from memory, is per-
haps incorrect, has doubtless had not a
little to do with causing the chief cook at
the Parker House, Boston, to be paid
larger salary than the President of Har-
ward College.
BEFORE QUITTING THE SUBJECT
of eating, l must tell you how Mrs. Lang
"
would say, when inviting Mr.. Talboys to
breakfast at noon on Monday, the day be-
fore she sailed. The body of the invita-
tion was in prose, but, like Sam Weller's
| valentine to Mary, the pretty housemaid,
1t ended with rhyme, as follows:
Dear Tai:
You have pal
In me,
Lilly Langtry.
MIR. TalbOys, it may be said in passing.
who being a friend to both parties. ought
| to be in position to know, stOutly MAIN
tains that Mrs. Langstry has been guilty
OF nothing worse than imprudence in her
relations with Fred Gebhardt. There are
| few persons in New York, however. who
are so charitable as to believe him. Mrs.
Langtry's imprudence, if it be nothing
more, has resulted in her being socially
| Ostracized by what are considered the
''best people" here. 1t is the first instance
probably of person assOciating with
! people of rank in England being unable
to get into society in America. The re.
verse, to be sure, has been often met with.
| and there are number of notable people
who do not go into society here, and vet
| hobnob with the swellest of the swell on
the other side of the water.
MRS. FRANK LESLIE,
for instance, Is, or was until recently.
the guest of Lady Duffus Hardy, and as
such was received into London society.
1t goes without saying that she has no
social pOsition-a fact which Lady Hardy
must have discovered when she spent last
winter with Mrs. Leslie. Again. Mrs.
Paran Stevens was received in English
society long before she obtained social
recognition here, and, indeed, to this dav
the Beacon street BOstOnians will not
invite her to their houses because her
husband was once the landlord of the
Iftsf1aa afataf Ion . kI,rA
nection let me tell a story about Mrs.
Stevens, which is good, if untrue. When
the Prince of Wales first breakfasted with
her in London, she is supposed to have
greeted her distinguished guest witha
Its not the first time, your Royal
Highness, that have had the pleasure of
seeing you under my humble roof. When
you VISITED Boston you stopped at the
fremont House, which was then kept bv
my poor, dear, dead Paran."
THE THEATRICAL SEASON
IS at its dullest this week. But two
theatres are open in the entire CITY ont
side of the Bowery, and the resorts on
that thoroughfare which are still
patr0nlzed by perspirIng audiences are
not worthy of the name of theatre. The
theatres in questionable Madison Square
and the CasinO-are meeting with the re-
ward due to their pluck in fighting il ont
ou o4iaG iliIe ii IL taxes all summer. or.
rather, in taking all summer to fight it
out on that line, and cOmparatiyelv
crowded houses are reported nightly.
Next month, however, will see nearly all
the other theatres reopen, and New
Workers will have a more extended
theatrical menu to choose from.
AS DIRTY BIT
of political iniquity as was ever perpe-
trated was consummated yesterday by
Fire Commissioners Van Cott and Pur-
roy, the first named Of whom is Repub-
lican and the other Tammany Democrat
who is opposed to John Kelly. 1t is too
long story to tell in detail, but you will
doubtless scent the colored gentleman i'm
the fence when l inform YOU that Edward
q. Dumahant, after years of faithful SER
vice as chief clerk of the Building Bu-
reau, was dismissed from his position
ostensibly for giving John B. Haskins. the
Iammany Sachem, conditional permis-
sion to add second story to his little
frame real estate office in Fordham. Mr..
Dumahant's derelictiOn is supposed to
consist in giving the permission before
sendIng an examiner to discover whether |
the real estate office would bear the |
weight Of another story, and it is also |
claimed that he had no right to give the per- |
mission before Inspector Esterbrook had |
inspected the plans. He anticipated the |
examiner, however, by less than twenty |
four hours, and he had been authorized |
by the Inspector to issue permissions to |
build or rebuild subject to his approval. |
Yet on this mere infOrmality, deserving |