Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-01

her fair young members was so striking
that I couldn't help wondering how
much she disliked the work and how
much he liked it. Whatever may have
been the relative sacrifice and enjoy
ment in the proceeding, neither let it
be seen, for his dignity was never let
down a single peg, and her gentle UNI
consciousness was unbrOken. But she
had the prettiest possible ways; her
manipulation of his hands was graceful,
and ii isn't probable at all that she was
ignorant of the fact that she was very
charming.
After Lent will come a renewal of
fashionable gayety, of course, and the
few diversions permitted in swell soci-
ETY. during that period of pcnitence will
be at once displaced by other and live
lier amusemcnts. One of these will be
fencing by ladies. Many an article has
been written describing feminine in
~dulgences in this pastime, but the fenc-
ers in these cases have usually been
actresses seeking notoriety. But a gen
uine ladies' annex to the Fencers' club
has actually been formed, and among its
members are such acknowledged So
ciety bellies as Judge Lawrence's daugh-
ter Ruth, the Phelps-Dodge families
beauty, Sarah Phelps Stokes, the bril-
llilllV NlIS' Iu"tlu Lllltlltll, anu IL uOLtl
others whose names, although strange
to you are recognizable here in New
York Tvs belonging to highly approved
people. They are to begin exercise In
earnest next week. They promise to do
so at least, but whether their parties
and thrusts amounts to anything re-
mains TO be seen. l have only seen Il lit
tie Of their practice thus far, and
| must confess hat it had n strike-you-
with-a-feather aspect. The girls took
the prescribed poses very gracefully, in
their
JERSEY BoDICEs AND SHORT SKIRTS,
but when it came to the use of the foils,
there was more of the kind of lodging
that women do when a mouse is around
than of deliberate swordsmanship.
Wire-masks protected their faces, as
usual in fencing, foils had safe buttons
on their ends, and the stabbing was
done at thick pads fastened oven the
breasts OF the ~combatants; and yet all
these safeguards against accident did
not seem to give assurance and feminine
timidity characterised the exercise all
the time. a reception and exhibition
is to be given at the middle of April,
and possible some of the girls may by
that time brace themselves up TO a sem
blance of courage. At all events they
90 b'AiA" w w - w ~ SNAii'llS'
1t has been often enough printed that
foolish women in New York adulate
pretty actors in the open streets. That
is only true in Il very limited sense. A
few silly girls associate, in their feeble
little minds, the heroes of the stage
with the i~mpersonators of them; but
nineteen in twenty women who GO to
the theaters are utterly unaffected by
any such nonsense. Proof of the base
lossness Of the common charge is easy
20 give. Broadway from Twenty-eighth
To Thirty-third street contains six
theaters Pround the doors of which, and
longing in and out OF the doors of add
jacent slloon 5, are hundreds of actors.
Union Square, further down Broadway,
is the rialto OF actors, but the pretty
fellows of the profession, dress like
dGndies and pose as Washers, frequent
the five blocks previously mentioned,
And now, it is q positive fact, dem
onstrated by an hour Of observa-
ton any pleasant afternoon, that
the ladies OF New York avoid that par
;icular section Of the great thorough
fare, They crowd Broadway and Sixth
avenue further down, for that is the re-
tail shopping district, but up there
sn,oug the theaters they are SO scarce