Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-30
TALK OF THE TOWN.

Is IALh Vf luE lVWN.
| Women still Cannot BE Notaries-The Bin
to Make Her Person Failed-Tne De-
mand for Decoration Day blossoms
| Oysters in Summertime Topical Takers
! Gossip.
| ONE of the bills that went down in the
closing stampede of the session at Harris
burg was a modest little one with the gal
liant purpose of allowing women to become
| potaries public. 1t was such awell-intended
little bill in all respects that nobody seems
to have been greatly anxious about its fate,
and as so often happens with inoffensive
| legislation in the crowded thofoughfare of
State Legislature, it fell when nobody was
| looking, and was crushed to death. The bill
was drawn up by Messrs. d, T. Watson and
| A, M. Neeper, at the request of Miss c.
Newell, who, with other stenographers of
| her sex in legal work, desired to exercise the
| notarfal function. Miss Newell said yester-
day: 81 was greatly surprised to see that
the bill was rot passed, for we had heard of
| no opposition to it, and Mr.. Watson and Mr.
Neeper, who drafted the bill, saw that it was
entrusted to proper hands for passage. do
not remember who the Senator was who in
troduced the bill"
Woman Is Not Person.
Mrs. LUCY D. 1AMs, stenographer of high
standing in legal circles, said to me. "I am
afraid we didn't agitate the matter suf
ficiently. The inherent righteousness OF the
bill ought to have carried it through the
Legislature, and it is not easy to see what
argument could be made against it, except
that which men always offer when women
enter new field of work, where mascu-
line monopoly has previously existed. For
the life of me can't see why the Governor
of the State should not appoint women to be
notaries, but Attorney General Kirkpatrick
believe it was who decided against us, ad-
vising Governor Beaver that woman was
not "a person in the legal sense, and there
fore ineligible to the office of notary public.
The bill with which Messrs Watson
difficulty has failed to pass, and
1 am heartily sorry, for it would have been q
great convenience to me and many other
% women stendograpners ftnen an1 Mnnaen sten
ographers in legal Offices who have constant
occasion to call in notary, and they, as
would the amanuenses in business houses
throughout the city, would have been pene-
fitted by the removal of the bar between
them and the notarial office. do not know
of any essentially feminine disqualification
ter an oath and affix a seal quite as handily
and with greater grace than man, and l
sincerely believe she could pocket the nall
dollars and dollars for doing the same just
"
make the experiment"
Flowers for Many Graves.
THE florists had to hustle yesterday, and
indeed the demand for flowers for Decora-
tion Day purposes has kept them busy for
q week or two. One of the Smithf1eld street
florists said to me yesterday: "The graves
ought to be bright enough tomorrow, Judg-
ing by the number of flowers the city flor
lists have sold. In our case, and think it is
the same with all the florists, the demand
has more than equaled the supply, and by
the close of the day our stock of cut flowers s
will be cleaned out. This morning I have
have been, securing Troy Hill, where a great
many glass frames are run in connection
with the truck gardens, to pick up what
flowers could, and have had need of all
got. You see for Decoration Day the
demand is for flowers raised in this
county. Geraniums, mignonette, lilies and
flowers of that description are wanted. Not
the high-Priced flowers, you see, ana ts we
help us as we might if roses were required,
tor example The weather has not been
favorable to flowers out of doors this spring,
and this again has curtafled our resources.
You might suppose that these conditions
would have made the price of flowers rise,
especially on the eve of Decoration Day, but
it is not the case; flowers of the sort required
for grave decoration are selling at as low a
figure as ever. You can see how the rush
for flowers has reduced our stock when we
are obliged to sell lilies, like those IN the
window, that are still no more than buds, |
and people are glad to get them though the
chances are that they will not be in blossom
tomorrow"
Who Wants Oysters Now?
THE bill which has just passed finally in
the Senate at Harrisburg permitting the sale ]
of oysters and CLAIMS all the year round will |
not affect the shell fish trade in this end of |
the State materially, for the simple reason |
that the State law prohibiting the sale Of |
oysters and clans from May to September |
has never been strictly enforced or re- |
garded seriously in this city.
George Fl. Gledhill said yesterday: ri have |
known. that a close season for shell fish ex- |
listed by law, but never bothered my head |
about it because, to be candid it didn't de- |
prive me of any privilege. Fish dealers here |
do not sell oysters during the summer be- |
cause the public don't care for them, and |
the law has not been |
broken often. The removal of the |
legal prohibition will not conquer the gen. |
eral prejudice against eating oysters in |
months which are spelt without an r, and |
there has been no movement among fish |
suppose it was introduced in the interest of |
the Philadelphia trade. The Maryland law
is the strictest in the government of oyster |
gathering, and it the Baltimore oyster
close season from May to September ], and |
during the latter part of April and the early |
part Of September use the tongs in place of |
the dredge. The dredge gathers oysters of |
all sizes, and, in fact, whatever is on the |
river or ocean bed, including mud while the |
tongs only reaches oysters of q fair size. But |
the New York and Philadelphia oyster mar.
kets are supplied to some extent with shell |
fish all summer, and we could be so here if |
the public demanded it. As it is hardly any
oysters are eaten in the R-less months here,
and not very many CLAIMS so that the Legis-
lature has not conferred any particular |
benefit upon us by passing the new law"
Other fish dealers in the PittSburg and
markets spoke in the same strain,
and several statesmen in the Allegheny mar
l1et were unaware that they required the |
new law to legalize the sale of oysters, etc., |
the year through.
A Blonde ond Brunette Combine.
"IF all young women were as careful as
some know to cater to the different tastes
Of men in search of wife, there wouldn't
be as many old maids as there are," said a
young Pittsburger whose name it would be I
unfair to give.
'aThe accommodating damsels to whom I |
allude have lived on the same street with
me since early childhood" he continued,
'and they are, or rather were until recently,
six in number. They. were all pretty and
good girls, and the family would not have
attracted much attention in O neighborhood
where lovely and virtuous women were the
rule, if they had not been equally divided
into blonde and brunette camps. Three
Of them were as fair as Aurora
and their hair as golden as the
chariot of Phebus while the other
three had tresses as decidedly black You
,o,, .na ad;I.r +na off 80 x1... |