The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-06-27

How People are Lost Socially In tine
Errat Whirl Of New York.
The Daily News.

The Daily News.
Scott, who stole $3.50, 900 from the bank
OF which he was a teller, was an exhibit OF
the complete separation Of men in this city.
Neither the president nor the cashier, who
were with him in business daily, knew any
thing OF his manner Of life socially. On
quitting the bank he went one way and
they went others, to meet again next morn
ing, and no questions asked as to the in
tervening hours. There is nothing unusual
in this case. Two clerks who sit at OppO-
site sides OF a desk during the day may be
five, ten or twenty miles apart at night.
1t would seem to be simply protective COM
NOR sense, however, for employers to
acquaint themselves with the social habits
OF the men who handle their money and are
liable 20 make big grab at it. The facili-
ties for getting such knowledge are ample.
Private detectives are at the command OF
whoever cares to pay SS or $40
Ia day for their spying, for which
remuneration they win report every
movement OF the person on whom they are
set, from the moment he quits his employ
ment in the afternoon until he returns to it
next day. Moreover. there are what we
call fidelity insurance companies who will
guarantee the honesty OF an employe for
| fees commensurate with the risk. For their
own protection, they spy out the character
| OF the men whose conduct are their imme-
diate concern. l happened to know Scott.
He belonged to the New York Athletic Club,
and frequently exercised in its magnificent
house. His health and strength were
sight, and he seemed to be chiefly bent
upon benefiting them, rather than the mere
diversion of the place. He was a gentle
manly, hearty fellow, and it was shock to
learn that he vas u thief remember that,
within u month, the conversation in his
presence turned to defalcations, and he de-
scribed how, in his own position, he could
get off with quarter million dollars easily
enough, but that he could not possibly gain
more than ten hours start with the swag.
The party laughingly discussed the ques-
ton how far and sale a distance he could
reach in that time and we also concluded,
after jocose chat on that point, that to
become IL fugitive millionaire would not ad-
equately compensate II man Tor giving up
home, friends and self-respect. Who knows
that Scott was not then and there set in
the notion of plundering his bank, or that
he was not silently, yet positively, dissen-
tient from our arguments, that it pays best
| to be honest.
It is comparatively easy for a man to
lead IL double life in New York. The chance
of exposure is not great. There is just now
some gossip current about a chap OF as
sumed piety, who became an active member
of Il missionary band, and one evening,
while exhorting IL company OF East Side
reprobates to repentance and reform, he
was benumbed by a young woman who sud
denly disclosed herself in the audience to
declare that he was the cause and partner
| of her disgrace. His arguments convinced
| her that he as well as she had ought to con-
fess.
But this is not a Sodom Or Gomarrah.
nor do believe that the proportions OF
good and evil are more deplOrable here
than elsewhere, but it is undenable that
the quantities of both are enormous. l
stood for half an hour yesterday afternoon
where | could watch the passing OF 1000
working girls ON their departure from sew
eral factories for their homes. They were
merry, chattering and seemingly careless,
but their clothes and employment denoted
their poverty. ! was interested in compar-
ing them with my recollections of an equal
number of Fifth avenue fashionables, whom
I had scrutenized at church-going time last
Sunday. Is there anything in the idea that
wealth and refinement beautify faces
Nothing at all. Putting rigidly out OF
\ aiE s6nsia aeFatso s:s,sicls'
| were present in the one case and absent
in the other, and judicially deciding on the
bare faces, feel bound to render the opin-
ion that the poor girls were in the aggregate
fully as handsome as the rich. There is no
typical New York beauty. We are too COLI
glomer,te for that. In both multitudes the
proportion OF really pretty girls was large,
and very diversified; and found that the
Clara We're de We're sort was as plenty in
one lot as in the other. But | set out to
write a point in favor OF the morals Of the
working maitlens. Three dudes had taken
their position for mashing purposes. They
industriously and think ably, ogled every
good-looking miss that passed, but they
failed ignobly. Their insults were not, per-
haps, received with the imperturable dis
dain which would have been elicited in
Fifth avenue by like demonstration but
the repulsion was, in the main, quite deci-
sive. The fellows did not succeed in foist-
ing themselves upon the desired partners,
and for their pains they received an amount
OF ridicule which, if they were new to the
experiment, must have astounded them.
Their glances were not always met with
averted eyes, it is true, but the absence
OF coyness was usually compensated by un-
mistakability as when young beauty,
with black-lashed gray Irish eyes and
freckled cheeks, cried out merrily: "Oh,
girls, see the dummies. Why don't the tai
lor take em in?'