Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-16
LENT IN NEW YORK.
Not Much Life I'm Society, but Plenty of
GOSSIP
DEVOTION DIVIDED BETWEEN THEATERs AND
CHURCHEs-THE GossIPs BUSY ABOUT TWO WELL
KNOWN woAEN-A PRINCE GOING TO WORK
WILL NEW YORK ABSORB BROOKLYN?
spondence of THE Evening star.


WILL NEW YORK ABSORB BRooKIYN?
Core spondence of THE EVENING STAR:
NEW YORK. March Is.
We are well along now in the lenten season.
and its safe to say nobody knows il EXCEPT the
enthusiastically inclined and the society folks.
If other people know it it doesn't interfere with
their enjoyment. The society people. of course.
don't have any balls. and they go TO church
on weekdays because it's fashionable. but
apparently it isn't sin to go TO the theaters in
Lent, for all the houses have been packed this
week, and many of the McAllister set have been
quite as devoted to the footlights as they have
to the nave and chancel. The theaters seem to
be, most of them, eudeavoring to bring farm
yards and pastures into town. Denman
Thompson started it with his farmvard and real
OK team in The Old Homestead" which has
run straight along for nearly year at one of
the biggest houses in New York. the Academy
of Music, and which has been booked to run
there for yet another year. Every mana
ger have talked to for months
has said: IF | only had an old Homestead
l wouldn't worry another day" Even Charley
Hoyt. who has been getting rich for four wears
through the medium Of such nonsenscal jun
bles as The Tin Soldier and A Brass Mon
key has wondered at Den Thompson's sue
cess so long that he has put on a iarm-yard
coru-huSklng piece at the Bij Ou called "A Mid
night Beif'-bad name for a corn-hu,king
play-and so far he has done great business
Aud PtOctors new theater on 23d street has
been opened by Neil Burgess in another farm
yard play. full of milk-strainers and sun
bonnets. and it is drawing TO the capacity of
the house. Whether the rest of the country
will find these backwoods hOmespun plavs as
taking as New York does is an unsettled ques-
ton. but here II Is genuine era of calico and
cow-hide boots III theatricals.
-.
II society can't dance in Lent. il can gossip
1t has been gossiping considerably this week
about the alleged divorce of Mrs Langtry from
her English husband and her alleged marriage
day later with young Mr.. Freddie Gerhard.
There Is nothing i'll ii. however. One of Mr..
Gebhard's cronies told me that if Mrs Langtrv
should get a diyOrce-which she hasn't--Ered-
die wouldn't marry her. In the first place
Freddie Gebhard. although a rounder and a
gllded youth and all that. is one of the strict
est of Roman Catholics. The Roman church
doesn't countenance divorce for any canse. and
1t frowns severely upon marriage to divorced
person. In the second place, said Mr.. Gcb,
hards crOnv, Freddie is about TWENTY-FIVE
years old, while the Lily lacks onl V a short year
OF forty. When Freddie is forty she will be
titty-five. Platonic affection between man of
his age and woman of hers is all right; but
marriage and love never.
Society has also been gossiping about a di-
vorce between Mr.. and Mrs James Brown Pot
ter. No two people. strange enough. tell the
same story about il. but all unite in a feeling
OF pity for Mr.. Potter. who has no doubt suf-
tered intensely since the "'0stler Joe" episode
in Washington.
Prince Georges Erstoff de Gourie the I'M
fortunate young Russian nobleman whose
story | told in The STAR some weeks ago, after
being jailed (and finally bailedD for his inabil-
lty to pay for an Overcoat, received his long
awaited draft from home last week, Friday. 1t
wasn't very large draft. either but it was the
best his poor weak father could do. The prince
did what not every man in his position wouId
have dOne-he paid ont every bit of il as far as it
would go to the neediest of his creditors. saving
only enough to get him a secOnd-cabin passage
to liavre. and on Saturday afternoon
he boarded the French mail steam
ship La DOurgogne Just as she
casting off. and is by this
time probably more than half way to Europe.
There he will be assisted to get to his Russian
home. where. he says. he intends to remain for
the rest of his days He ut length understands
some of the sacrifices his father has made to
keep him III style i'll various parts of the world,
and he declares that he will set to work as hard
as he can to try to make money. 1t would be
interesting to know if man brought up as he
has been. without even a notion of money -earn-
my. can succeed AT sucn an attenlDt after pass
ing his twenty-eighth year. have my doubts
The first move has been made which is to
unite New York and Brooklyn under one NUM-
cipal government. which is to make of them
one great city. On Tuesday Assemblyman
Crosby introduced at Albany a bill of which l
told your readers a few weeks ago. bv the
terms of which a commission is to be appointed
to inquire into the eXpediency of the project.
The committee will consist of twelve persons,
SIX of whom are named i'll the bill and as
tainly five of the gentlemen named are known
TO favor the project, the committees report to
the legislature is likely to present the rosy side
of the scheme. The idea of Mr. Andrew Fl.
Green, the chairman of this committee. is to
occupy with the new city much larger area
than that | mentioned i'll my first letter on the
subject. Mr.. Green wants not only New York,
Brook YIN. and WeStchester townships 10 be
part of the great city. but also the whole of
Richmond county (Staten Island). and three of
the largest towns i'll Queens county. This adj
ditiOn would give the city an area of
at once of 3,0O0000 so that if the
present ratio of increase III population contiu-
ues New York would in thirty years be the
largest city on the globe. giving London the
benefit of the most generous estimate of her in
crease in population. In area. however. Lon
don would be still twice as large, that city
covers nearly 700 square miles. The residents
of Brooklyn have almost unanimously opposed
the scheme OF nnlncatlon until they have IN
vestigated. and then they have become almost
unanimously i'll favor of it. 1t will
really be a great thing for Brook
Ign. Brooklyn at present has acres of
docks and wharve5. which are all for the bene-
fit of the city of New York and are an expense
to Brook yn. That city is also taxed too heavily
1t has large residential portion and
small mercantile portion. Most of it's
residents make their money i'll New York and
their wives spend it in New York. With the
completion of the bridges and tunnels over and
under the East river, which the commission is
to recommend as part of the scheme. much
of the business portion of New York as well as
its residential portion, would overflow into
Brooklyn.
Shrewd men are predicting big crash in up
town real estate unless some measure is taken
very soon to secure for the city a good system
OF rapid transit. Values are now hanging on
the ragged edge, work has been suspended
upon many buildings i'll course of erection. and
great rows of tat-hOuses and stores are stand
ing untenanted in many of the streets above
I'D street on the west side and abote the Har-
lem river on the east side. The Arcade" plan
of rapid transit, which was expected to be the
first to go into operation, was knocked clean
out this week by a decision of the court of APP
peals. which decides its charter invalid. Vice
President Morton was one of the stockholders
OF the Arcade company. which has existed since
1868. The reason why it has not in these twenty
years done something in the way of actual
work upon its underground rapid-transit line
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