Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-08-20
LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS.
HALF THE TOWN NIGNORANCE
OF THE OTHERS ABODE.
Old Friends Four Years in the Same
Block Without Knowing It-Acquaint-
aneeships of the Summering Places
Newspaper EXaggeratiOns The Ro-
nance of a Disappearance.

ancesh1ps of the Summering Places
Newspaper ExaggeratiOns The Ro-
nance of Disappearance.
Correspondence ofthe Morning Neacs.
NEW YORK, August lit was Rabe-
lals who said that E'half the world don't
| know how the other half lives" Alter
"how' to "where," and the dictum be-
comes almost truer as regards New York
ers than i'll its original form. 1t is al
most an exception for a resident of this
city to know who is his next-door neigh
Dor, unless they have business interests
IN common, or move in the same social
plane. If, by mistake, you get numbers
confused, and ring at the wrong house.
the servant who answers the bell is sell
dom. or never, able to direct YOU to the
right one, although it may be next door.
ms TACT is illustrated by the experience
ot tllend of mine from out of town, who,
the other day, went to call on a family of
some social Importance who have occu-
! pled the same house on Gramercy Park
! Tor thlrty-hYe years. Forgetting the
number, he rang at No. 119 East Twenty
first street in place of No. 115. ssNO. Mr..
= does not live here; don't know where
he does live. Perhaps the watchman next
door VIII know" said the servant in
answer to his inquiry. The watchman
did not know, but suggested
that somebody at Mr.. Cyrus w. Fields
house, which is No. 123, the same street.
would know. Had the Field family been
| at home the question would probably
have been answered, but, as it was, the
inquirer, in despair, had recourse to
| several boys who prOfessed to know
! where everybody in the block lived. They
/ tExto
! which was right, and it was only by acci-
dent that he finally arrived at his destina-
! tlon only to discover that it being August
! the persons he wished to see We're out of
| town. His experience is not exceptional:
have often had similar. Sometimes even
business relations will not acquaint a
New 0rker with his neighDOrs. | know
OF broker who thought he did not have
an acquaintance in the block in which he
mad lived for years, until one day he saw
business friend descend the steps of a
| neighbOring house. 'EHello. what were
| you doing there?" he asked, Joining him.
Il live there" ''Since when?, '1Since
! 1876 -
Another similar and equally striking
! feature of New York life is the frequency
that you find people of equal social stand
ing who have many friends. in common.
and yet who are not acquainted with each
| other because they were in different sets,
know of two families, who, although not
kin to each other, have a cOmparatiyeIy
near relative in common, one whom they
are both fond of, and, although for social
reasons mutual acquaintanceship would
be desirable, they are nevertheless not on
visiting terms. There has been no quar-
rel, for they do not know each other, they
have simply never met.
One nearly always, however. can dis
cover the social standing of person bv
| his or her list of acquaintance. A New
Yorker of any social position at all must
know certain New York families. Not to
know them is to prove oneself unknown.
And one often finds well educated and
we'll bred people who, Judged by this rule.
are no more in New York society than if
they did not live here. | remember meet
ing once at Western summer resort an
unusually attractive and charming
woman, who had read a great deal, knew
several languages, played and sang, and
was, moreover lady, so far as one could
judge. She was a New Yorker, and |
asked whom she knew here. She named
a number of persons whom / had hardly
heard OF, and the only name of any social
Importance was that of Roosevelt Her
cquaintanceship with the ROosevelts was
due to the fact that the members of the
family in question are not at all exclusive,
and go everywhere.
NeW III keIS WHO meet eacn other for
the first time at summer resorts and
watering places are not apt to fraternize.
but if they do the mountaineering GEN
orally stops with the summer, A person
who on his return to town presumed to
call unlimited on a family whom he met
i'll the country would not be received, or
if admitted would be treated so coldly
that he would not care to repeat the visit.
People who keep up their summer
of EV,H
out they have made mistake by
so doing. L know of a lady belong
ing to an old New York family
who met somewhere one summer an at
tractive woman from Baltimore. She was
so charmed with her new acquaintance
that she invited her to visit her; an in
Vltatlon which was accepted ON condition
that she should first visit Baltimore. The
New Yorker had no doubt of the Balti-
mOrean's social position, as the latter
evidently knew well all the ''swell" men
In the Monumental City, and she took it
for granted that she also knew their
wives. When, however, Mrs. New Yorker
spoke to Baltimorean living in New
\ ork of her intended visit to his native
place, she was told that the husband of
the person whose guest she was to be
kept mammoth oyster and chop house,
or something of the sort, which was the
resort OF men about town. Their wives.
however, it is hardly necessary to say,
did not call on the prOprietor's wife. it
IS equally unnecessary to say that the
New York woman has not vet made her
visit to Baltimore, nor has the RaItimora
woman visited her watering-place ac-
quaintance in New York.
The robbery of Wolf DaZain. the dealer |
in theatrical goods at 26 Union SQUARE.
which is reported in some of the local |
papers this morning, illustrates a pecu-
liar phase of New York journalism. AS
1t was known to be a 'Ebeat;, on the rest
the papers giving an account of the
burglary exaggerated it as much as pos
slble, and placed the loss at from $4,000
to $4,000. Police Captain CGnch. in
whose precinct the burglarized premises
are situated, told me this morning that he
would not give $500 for what was carried
away by the burglars. Even making al
loWance Tor his professional inclination
to belittIe the loss, one can see that a
mountain has been made of comparative
mole hill.
On an average three persons a day, or
about an hundred month, are reported |
to the police as missing. Nearly all of |
them are found, or prove never to have |
been lost iii the course of few DAYS. |
but occasionally person of more or less |
prominence disappears and leaves no |
trace. such case was that of Thomas |
q. Hunt, the oil merchant at 1877 Front |
street, who was missing from June 80 un- |
tll yesterday. when he appeared at the |
house of friend in Elizahethtown in this |
State, In the interval, while IabOring IN
DER all alteration of mind. he found /
ms away across the. ocean, and visited /
Cambridge, England. Returning almost I
Immediately, he wandered over this cOun (
try and Canada. He cannot name all the |
places he visited in his travels, but recOl- |
lects being at Chicago and Montreal. and |
also his voyage to England. He was first |
heard of at Cambridge, and supposing tho ,
he was still there, his wife, who = ,ra,JoI
ling abroad, was tteeilegraphe6 10 meet |
nlm' 1i I 20 mat time, intelligence of his |
uisappearance had been kept from her.
ana the disappointment at not finding him /
may have been so great that, as she is in
delicate health, the present good news |
may come too late.
wall street seems to have recovered |
from its panicky condition Of the begin
hipg OF she week, and stocks are looking
up again. Should "boom' begin now,
IL would not be cut short by the hot l
June, n o.
Cotton Worms at Work.
COLUMBIA, S. G., August 1S.-Tbe cot
ton caterpillar has appeared on neighbor-
ing platatlons and is boring Young blooms
badly The leaves and bolls are aiso
rayaged by the worms. Planters are /
making efforts 20 save the crop with /
}arls green and night lights, A section
01 sumter county alsa reports damage
tfolll Woflns. The prospects are that ]
much damage will be done.
Egyptian Papers Susnenda1