Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-25
STRAY CITY LEAVES.
What Men VIII Wear This Season-How
Mems Fashions Are Made-The May
Festival HalI-A CHEEKY Outlook-The
Point and the Exposition-License' Court

Mems Fashions Are Made-The May
Festival HalI-A CHEEKY Outlook-The
Point and the Exposition-License'C Court
Disturbs Trade.
Surely it must be indicative OF general pros
perity that the taiors are cheerful. When
tailor is cheerful, his customers are
plenty, and when men bay new clothes
in spite of the prevailing opinion that
man IS desperately selfish animal
they have provided as q rule for their
families. Well, the Pittsburg tailors wear
spring smiles, and good many of their
customers wear spring suits. Yesterday
a fashionable Fifth avenue tailor saidsto me:
Business is brisk enough to suit me, and
March was decidedly good month. There are
no very radical changes in fashion, but the pre-
vailing tone OF goods will be quieter than las
year. The large blocks which have been so
popular for the last two or three years are en-
tirely out of style, and in their place neat
broken checksfn light blues and grays have
come in. The latest imported cloths for the
season are mostly brown cheviots and black ard
white vicunas or gray checks. Trousers are to
be cut medium width-if anything, little
narrower than last year. Gray stripes and
checks in quiet colors are in favor for trousers.
and an especially fashionable combination for
occasional wearis the frock suit of some modest
gray go0ds-a fad Of the London clubmeh this
season, l hear"
The Setting of Mems Fashions.
Who sets the fashion for menf
put the Question to leading tailor yester-
day, and he said: SWELL at present we get our
fashions from single New York source, to
which every tailor in the country has equal
opportunity to resort. Merchant tailors, whole
sale manufacturers and every one in the trade
knows the fashions for the season therefore at
the same time. 1t is proposed by the Merchant
Taflors' Exchange, however. to change this
and establish organ of their own, which shall
set the fashions for the members alone. The
Iasnlon plates will be issued to members only,
and the wholesale manufacturers will be pre-
vented from duplicating cheapy clothes Of
in operation 1 believe and hope, before
next year. At present London really sets the
fashions in mems attire for the wOrld, although
lney are more or less altered to suit American
ideas before they are adopted here. 1t is some
what singular that English fashions should pre-
vail when 1t Is admitted even by English tall
ors that American tailoring is, as a general
thlng, superior to the English. The reason for
the superiority in the American fine custom
made clothes is that they are cut and made by
more intelligent class of men at higher wages
than is the case In England.
The May Festival Hall
You would not recognize the interior Of Me-
chanical Hall in the Exposition buildings
these days. In place of the maze of machinery
there has arisen in the last fortnight an inner
shell Of white pine boards. the concert hall
wherein the May Festival will occur in a very
little while. The work has progressed suffi-
ciently for one to form an accurate idea of the
halPs lines and accommodations. The par
quet extends from the platform dis
tance of exactly 100 feet, and the gallery
ipe ta
nall. The boxes are arranged about the par
Quet In well designed curve and a perfeet
view OF the stage will be had from every one
OF the 1000 seats in the auditorium. The hall
is 1mmeasurably superior to the temporary
structure erected in the main Exposition
building in 1859. Mr.. Carl Retter has tested
the acoustics of the hall and he says that they
could hardly be improved. TO illustrate this
satisfactory feature Mr.. Retter went on the
stage, shouted like an infuriated Apache tor
my benefit yesterday afternoon, and the sound
waves seemed TO travel in proper proportion
and clearness, without echo, to the extreme
limits Of the auditorium. At the central en-
trance and extending to the west end of the
building there Is a vacant space between the
walls and the rear of the boxes for a splendid
foyer. and it is proposed to make this really
pleasant promenade, with tropical plants and
carpeted floor. The prospect seems to be more
cheerful on all sides than it was before the
last May Festival. The memory of the bleak
cavern of the winds, wherein Seidl led mis-
shiYering musicians against an audience with
chatterlng teeth and cold feet is still green
and think it is safe to say that the experience
OF lSo9 will not be repeated in Mechanical Hall
this year. When the boards are decked with
bunting and the seats are in place the hall will
be the handsomest temple of music, temporary
though it may be, Pittsburg has had
The Point and the Exposition.
Looking up at the hall of glass and iron as 1
left it, it struck me as somewhat remarkable
that in a neighborhood where throwing rocks
larrff -
few signs of breakage should be seen. The
glass walls are as solid and unbroken as il
they were stone. Superintendent Johnston ex-
planned this somewhat when I asked him.
Said he: THE Exposition and the people of
the Point have always been good friends, and
can cheerfully testify to their kindly attitude
toward us. Perhaps we should have had less
perfect harmony and more broken windows if
Father Sheedy had not always assisted us with
his persuasive and pacific influence. Father
Shecdy has done much for the Exposition in |
explaining its purpose to the people of the |
Point, and they have always been friendly to
US as result"
The License Lull.
Now that the retail liquor licenses have been |
granted in the two cIties the brewers and |
dealers in liquors and cigars are able to see |
daylight ahead. The License Court every year |
creates profound disturbance in the whisky |
and cigar trade. No saloonkeeper in these |
days can feel certain of his fate in the License |
Court, and consequently, as the time for the |
atter's session approaches, he cuts down his |
orders % the lowest point.
"There a general revival in trade" said a |
iealer in wet goods and cigars yesterday "as
soon as the License Court gets through, and it |
IS as marked as usual this year. 1t Is very an
loying to us to have the business grow so dull |
IN the early spring and suddenly jump into ex-
,essive activity after the License Court has ad-
ourned. If the practice of the PHILADELPHIA
courts to allow saoonkeepers TO hold their
license undisturbed so long as no remonstrance |
was filed against them, were adopted here, it
would be very beneficial to the business gener-
lilly and to the wholesalers as much as any.
HI.