The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-28
WHERE GIRLS WALK.
Strolling Along City Pavem ents on
Fine Spring Days.

persistent pedestrian, regardless of tempera-
ture or humidity, disdainful Of showers or
billiards., gaining for herself thereby
finer physical roundness, a clearer com
plexion and a larger appetite. In all her
phases this girl who walks is an interesting
study. There is never much variety about
the girl who rides. She has the conven-
tlonal seat, suit aud hat, and sticks closely
to the Park, with an air of utter disinterest
in the earth beneath her But the walking
girl brushes along in a sympathetic, skirt
rustling way that makes her companion
able with everything in sight, and she has
lmitless chances to throw more poetry into
her stride tlan Swnburne eyer did into
rounded.
The sidewalks of New York offer great
inducements to girl pedestrians, but there
Is science III the use OF them which the
average feminine philosophy seldom mas
terS. 1t is a wise and a good girl VINO
knows precisely how to retain her full
natural value by never walking in wrong
localities at wrong hours of the day. The
girl who strolls quietly in Central Park on
a sunshiny April morning will always be
considered as innocent as the gay little
robins bobbing over the lawns there. 1t
might be difficult to explain the different
suggestions of a walk in the same vicinity
say on a Sunday afternoon. A Sunday
morning stroll on Fifth avenue is grace
full and refined exertiOn. Masculine escorts
at that time will always add a luxury to
the event, but the lack of them is not disas
trous. The promenade on the same avenue
four hours later may be fully as respectable,
but there is a swarming crudity in the air
which changes the condition of things en-
tirely and leaves the modest, carefully bred
young woman III a hutter of doubt. 1t is
singular that at just this time lower Madi-
son avenue has exactly the right atmos-
phere to make the modest young woman
sure of herself again.
BROADWAY ON SUNDAY.
Any one can walk in Broad way on Sun
day with impunity. 1t is as safe and de-
serted as a village street. But the abuse of
Broadway on week days Is one of the most
dangerous features about feminine pedestri-
anism. Ladies seem incapable of under
standing the possibilities and limitations of
that great thoroughfare. They would not
dare to venture way down near Wall street
and Trinity church, where they would pass
unnoticed in the important rush of business,
and be able to stare about without being
stared at. They persist in promenading
in precisely the worst locality to be
found from Bowling Green to the
Park. That is the west side of Broad
way, from Thirty-third to Twenty-third
street. Most New York ladies are aware by
this time that they should not be seen in
this neighborhood during the hours between
3 and 6 in the afternoon. To draw the line
surely and finely the disagreeable effects
are first produced at Twenty-fourth street.
From there upward there is continuous
gauntlet of unpleasantness. 1t would scarcely
be worth making note of, but it is I'M
doubleday true that several decent and
well-meaning young girls futter excitedly
along there Oh these bright April
afternoons, knowing, perhaps, of
the adjacent contamination, but
feeling too skittish to be seriously
affected by it. The usual girl cannot tell a
mans profession at a glance. In their
giddiness they make mental note of the
prosperous looking group of notables stand
ing on the steps Of one Of the big hotels.
A heavy congregation of solid bankers and
brokers, no doubt Whyl and they deign
to admire us. This is indeed most crafty
ing. Who would not be elated at receiving
an approving gaze from a bankerl TIE
only trouble about all this is that these
bankers are really our most prominent gam
blers. On the next block a sweet group of
bunco steerers is taking its share of the
bright faced panorama from convenient
doorway.
On corner where another hotel st lnds
is collected a fine aggregation of burglars,
sneak thieves, pickpocketS, horse jockeys
and variety hall singers. Some of the
meanest actors in the profession lounge
about the entrances of the different bar
rooms putting nasty cigars and talking vul-
carly III tones perfectly audible to the
paSser by. The great underneath world of
feminnity comes out in all its vari-colored
splendor, trips onward to a given point,
swerves about and strikes ahead
on another lap. The groups in
the doorways remain intact. 1t would
be impossible to count the eyes conferred
upon a single pretty face. Bushes are not
as plentiful as the conditions would seem to
warrant. Sometimes a bright spot of shame
can be seen on girls cheek, but more often
it is bright spot of rouge. 1t is a note
worthy fact that the east side of the street
is comparatively deserted, and the few
people to be seen there are obviously of a
finer organization than the majority of those
on the popular west sidewalk.
BELOW TWENTY-THIRD STREET
Below Twenty-third street the conditions
Immediately change again. There are no
cafes, no convenient doorways for the
luxurious loafer to appropriate, and the
social stagnation Of the upper street is thus
avoided, the air constantly changes. and all
is fairly felcelul and proper. The right
girl is not doubted as she swings along in
this neighborhood. The most modest and
innocent specimens from New Jersey and
Philadelphia are found here fresh every
hour 1t is hard to understand the SUI
perior safety of this section of Broadway.
but it is undoubtedly a fact. 1t takes
very experienced fisherman to kill his game
here. Up town it is like angling off the
end of a wharf with tho fish all pointing
like fools at the hook.
When the walking girl strikes into Tween
ty-third or Fourteenth street. she is usually
steering toward a purchase SO important to
her own peace Of mind that all the irivolity
in her nature is forgotten for the moment,
and her intellectually is concentrated on
the little unbought article that draws her
on. Two yards of velvet ribbon, for in
stance, or a pair of blue silk carriers, will
attract the average young woman's mind
away from all the superficial affairs
of life, and sidewalk incidents, at
tractive men or even military parades
pail upon her till her mission of the
moment is accomplished. 1t is tho unwise
youth who obstructs the path of the young
lady who is on route to the dry goods ompo-
rum. She is in a high fever and VIII not
talk. The sagacious way is to pursue girl
friend who is evidently bent on purchasing
something, permit her TO secure the article
and then politely approach her as she is
bearing it away in triumph. Then all the
pent up Utica of her nervous system has
been set free and she will be her natural
happy self during hor walk up town. The
girls on TWenty-third and Fourteenth
streets are too preoccuped as a rule to be
anything that IS not ominently proper and
unswerylngly respectable