The Dickinson press., 1890-05-24
THE BROADWAY PARADE.
A Few Lines About tho Shopping District
and tho Shoppers.

and tho Shoppers.
The Broadway of the promenaders is
divided into three parts.
The first part, the shopping district,
reaches from Eighth street north to
Twenty-6rst. the second part stretches
from Twenty-first to Thirty third, and
is the widely known ''Tenderloin or Hoff-
man House district" and from Thirty
third to Forty-second stretches the "sou-
brettes' parade"
There is no other walk in this country
to compare with Broadway on a sunny
day.
1t begins to fill up with shoppers as
early as II, but it is in the afternoon that
it is at its brightest and best.
The shopping district is the least inter-
esting to the men. The women who go
there are in a hurry. They are preoccu-
pied; they have mission to perform.
They have heard that there is place
where they can get a piece of surah silk
to match the stuff they bought last week
at another place for fully three cents
yard cheaper; and they are looking for
that place.
They take time in their haste to look
at each other, or rather at each others
garments. They also take time to look
at what they themselves have on as they
pass the impromptu mirrors of the plate
glass windows. If the reflection is
strong one they will stop and walk up to
it, keeping up an appearance of deep in
terest In what is displayed in the shop
window, but in reality seeing only their
own pretty faces and bonnets.
They are just as busy and earnest over
their gloves and trimmings as are their
husbands and big brothers over their
"puts" and "calls' down town.
You see very few men in the shopping
district. They leave it to the enjoyment
of their feminine relatives and walk fur
ther up.
From 3 to o'clock the real prome-
made begins on Broadway. 1t is genu-
inc promenade, for the pedestrians are
not there by accident; they walk there
for the pleasure of walking and of see
ing each other and being seen. Perhaps
it would be more correct to say to be
seen, and then incidentally to see others.
You will see everybody who is any
body on Broadway sometime if you wait
long enough. But you will see very few
of the swagger set, either men or women.
They keep to Fifth avenue, and only strike
Broadway where the avenue crosses it.
Broadway is only for the less fashiona-
bic and perhaps less select citizens of
Gotham. The women who are seen there
are just a little too conspicuously dressed,
and the men who saunter there stare at
them more than is quite proper. This
may be because all the actors and ac-
tresses in New York walk on Broadway
in the afternoon, and the non profession
ais are always on the lookout for them.
They are frequently rewarded by the
sight of Sara Jewett, who dresses over
much on the street and looks, for some
reason, shorter and broader than she
does on the stage, and Pauline Hall in
sealskin and diamonds, Cora Tinnie in
black, with black boa, and generally
accompanied by her mother, who is said
to be q real mother and not hired
"stage MOTHER" and sweet Annie Rus
sell, who sees no one, but keeps straight
ahead with eyes "front."
The men who haunt Broadway are as
well known by sight as the Worth mon
ument or the clock in front of the Fifth
Avenue hotel, and they are quite as
hardened to the curious glances of the
pedestrians.-NewY York Evening Sun.