Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-26

Correspondence Of THE EVENING STAR
New YORK, April 25.-The bird of ill-omen is
never popular; at the same time the most
hurried survey of the times must convince any
one that the business situation is very precari-
Gus and even alarming. There are some who
think we have outgrown the old-fashioned
panic much as we have the old -fashioned
revival, but unless this be really SO the COM
munisy is standing today very near the edge
of business cataclysm. The nervous feeling
crops out in many surface indications. All the
exchanges are practically deserted. The
transactions of insignificant proportions,
and the utmost indifference prevails as TO all
speculative enterprises The brokers say,
with nearer approach to truth than they
generally get, that they don't do business
enough to pay their rent. In real
estate, which is another index of prosperity,
the market is dangerously dull. due very largely
TO the outrageous delay of rapid transit legisa-
| ton ut Albany. In the world of general business
one short and omnous word characteriZes the
market--it is dull. And this is true, although
the volume of transactions is immense. The
real trouble is that the mad competition of the
past few years has almost eliminated profits.
so many merchants are willing and able to go
through the motions of business for nothing,
IN order to keep their houses running that
I
ditions. merchant nowadays is something
like a lad who seeks employment in offices
where rich mems sons are eager to work for
the practice and reputation.
WHAT GIRL COSTS.
An unusual and interesting question is pre-
sented for Judge Barretts decision in the suit
now before his court. A father applies for an
order directing the Loan and Trust Company
to pay him the full interest from his wife's es-
tat hplI Inv ham in, tr,1cf for
! The daughter is eighteen and her father claims
that the whole amount of the interest. amount
Ing to about $1,000 per annum, Is necessary for
her support. None of the authorities were very
positive just what was fair amount for young
woman to spend annually and a referee was APP
pointed to ascertain. 1t would be interesting
to know how he intends to prosecute his re-
searches. 1t seems as if subject could
hardly be selected on which there would be
wider divergence of opinion In looking at the
luxurious but apparently entirely unnecessary
| articles of dress and adornment displayed in
| the better class of shops, and remarklng the
! startling prices affixed to them, one often
wonders who in the world buys these things.
| But there are never lacking women to order
| them by the dozen, with scarcely an inquiry as
! to the price. The idea to necessary expend-
| ltures of one of these sumptuous creatures,
| whose old clothes the Queen of Sheba might be
| glad to accept, must differ widely from those
of her more simply clad and housed sister, and
| y
way. SO it strikes one that this referee has a
| rather unusually skittish question to decide,
and one on which the most voluminous law
| library would cast but little light.
ARTIST ABBEY's MARRIAGE.
| Artistic New York turned out in force on
Tuesday to do honor to the marriage of E. A.
Abbey. His beautiful black and white work
is well known, and as his subjects are SO gen.
| orally English and he lives in London he is
| off - Irnl, Il,.A
is an American and will take back with him to
| England lovely and accomplished American
wife. Miss Gertrude Mead, who is now Mrs.
| Abbey, has mingled much in what is really the
| ''best society" in England and will not be
! stranger there. Her beautiful home here was
doubly beautiful with its artistic decorations of
spring flowers, and the bride herself was
| striking picture as she stood under flower
canopy in her superb gown of satin brocade
aud point lace with bouquet OF orchids and
| lilies of the valley
The summer miseries on the elevated have
| begun, and the New Yorker whom fate COM
peis to ride up and down town every day, either
hanging precariously to the platform or mashed
to jelly inside, sings an even more doleful tale
! of woe than he did during the holiday crush
Two ball games every day and the circus in full
| blast form potent magnet to draw people up
town of afternoons, and pushing, scramblng
| mob jams every car to suffocation. The weary
business man thinks of seat and the quiet
!
of the remote past or of an even remoter future
when some of the rapid transit schemes are &C.
| complished facts.
| THE woMEN's CLUBS.
| generation or SO ago "woman's rights"
meant her right to vote, and the general i'm
preston among the advocates of the cause
| seemed to be that everything else they wanted
would be involved in the possession of the
| ballot. Now there seems to be pretty general
| impression among thinking women that voting
| is Of very secondary importance SO long as
they have the right to do exactly as they please
| i'll every other respect The women who are
assembled here in convention this week form
notable gathering. They represent ninety
! clubs and come from all over the country, even
from the far south and west Sorosis came of
| age last year and this convention
WAS suggested at the celebration of
that event. One visit to the
| meetings might convince even a skeptic that
women can be as dignifed, as business-like and
| as executive as men, and perhaps rather more
entertaining. The correct bonnets and ele-
CANT gowns do not suggest the eccentric cos
| TUNES OF generation ago, Eor does the wide
range Of subjects discussed seem to lack inter-
est because the ballot is not among them. All
these women want Is the opportunity to lead
their own lives in their own way, to grow and
/ develop mentally untrammeled by the haunt
| ing fear of what people will say and the slavery
OF petty conventionality, and il appearances
are to be trusted they have got what they
want.
BUDS, DUST AND SPRING BoNNETs.
Even in arid New York, whose principal foil
age is the luxuriant lamp post and the umbra-
geous ash barrel, there are few indications be-
sides the shop windows of the coming of sum-
mer. Spring flowers are blooming in the few
tiny triangles and ovals that break in upon the
monotony of the brown stone canons and the
ornamental beds in the park are lovely. This
week the most advanced trees show little bud
ding green and there is quite rural suggestion
in the numbers Of women and children
with baskets digging dandelion greens in the
park. But the most unpleasant hint of sum-
mer is the dust An April drought is q little
unusual, suppose, if anything can be said to
be unusual in the weather market
this year. But it does seem as if
nothing but the most primitive of unpaved
country villages ought to be suffering the mar
tyrdom to dust that much Of New York has for
the last ten days. In the newer regions up
town, where much building is going on, it is az
deep in the streets as in acountry road, and the
carts and wagons keep it in active circulation
The city watering cart, an amusing little bur-
lesque consisting of a small and leaky barrel
occasionally drives by, stirring up fresh clouds.
but leaving no other visible mark Of its prog
ress. In the open cars you leave your mark on
the dusty seats, and the fresh spring bonnets
and frocks of the ladies show very plainly the
vicissitudes they have had to undergo When
the rain finally began falling ON Thursday even
those who were caught out in il without their
umbrellas could scarce forbear to cheer.
HENRY r. ELLIOT.
N,r sprsn Aao 4