Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-07-13
NEW YORK GOSSIP.
Luxurious Restaurants-0Iusic at Meals.
 The Brummen WatstcOat.
Copyright 1891, by The United Press
A NEW FAD.
ALICE MACGoWAN.

A NEW FAD.
 You can get 0 table-d'-h6te dinner in this city for twenty-five cents or you can go to Delmonico's and expend fifty dollars on a Lucullan feast. Between these extremes many courses are open to you in connec- tion with the satisfaction of your palate. If you are fairly well-fixed financially you can dine every night in splendid manner impossible ten years ago to millionaire. The evolution of the modern New York restaurant has been exceedingly rapid. While the cookery of a decade back was as good as to-day's, the surroundings of the metropolitan who dimes at one of the better class of restaurants are yearly be- coming more luxurious. Some of the new hotels have cafes that are worthy of a royal palace. But perhaps one of the most striking of the new features that pertain to restaurant and hotel life in New York, is the orchestral music that adds it's delights to the pleasures served up by the chef. You eat your dinner to the soft tones of a sonata from Chopin or 8 weird strain from Wagner. Perhaps your oysters and soup are literally waltzed down your throat. Possibly a gavotte makes your fish easier to swallow, while mazourka adds festive flavor to your roast and salad. You sip your coffee and liqueur to the dreamy measures of noc- turne. Around you are pleasure-loving
 
 dred-fold by countless mirrors that make the room look like an enormous banquet hall ten times it's actual size.
 MARKING BACK.
 The revival of an ancient fashion some times has an accidental origin. do not suppose that Clyde Fitch and Richard Mansfield had any intentions of aiding the tailors when they began their dramatic renaissance of antique dudedom. But the genius that Beau Brummeu gave express sion toin his waistcoats has had marked effect upon the impressionable American swell. Some of the Brummeu waistcoats now to be seen on Broadway and Fifth avenue are absolutely startling in their effects. Perhaps the Brummell hat and cane and snuff-box will be revived by the ieatnesse dor6e of this city. The great Beau's habit of leaving his debts unpaid has long been affected by the New York dude.
 NEW SYSTEM.
 What has become of the home life of New York? It exists somewhere, but you can not find it on the surface. When say home life I mean the hearthstone exist ence that pertains to middle class life in other American cities. People who are able to occupy pleasant houses in smaller places and beget that family seclusiveness that is essential to the highest form of home life would find that in the metropo- lis as circumstances now prevail they would have the world too much with them. Hotels, flats, apartments, restaurants !! They war against the hearthstone. Then again, this is pre-eminently city of clubs. Almost every man reasonably well off is 8 member of at least one or two clubs. It is a generally accepted theory that to be 8 clubbable man is to ones advantage in business or a profession. In no city in the world does this idea seem to have so marked an effect upon the home life as in New York. Men who can not af- ford to own house still seem to feel that it is good policy" to belong to several clubs. Then again, the exigencies of life in the metropolis scarcely tend toward the development of the wife and mother on the older American models Even the woman who belongs to no fashionable set Is surrounded by a certain atmosphere, an indefinable but all-pervad- Ing influence that must have a marked ef- feet upon her life and character. She would, unless she is an exception, prefer to be leader among the Four Hundred than 1 to rear family of sturdy American boys and girls. She can not be society queen and she refuses to be mother. What does she do? She goes to the theatre with her husband, fiirts with his friends, reads l novels, goes a-shopping, strolls on the ave- | nues, attends church, fondles small, l white, bull-terrier, and watches her face and hair closely to see how time is dealing with her.
 There are, of course, homes in New York, but, as said before, you must seek for | them if you would find them. They per 1 tain neither to the Four Hundred, the 1 tenement districts nor, in any great de- gree, to that vast population thatis neither l rich nor poor, neither fashionable nor de- graded.
 NEW YORK GOSSIP.
 ! Perhaps of all the people in this cosmo- politan city, those who seem to understand best the art of enjoying life are the we'll to-do Germans. They do not overwork overeat or overdrink. TheiI well-poised natures withstand the nervous exhaus- tion that life here begets, and they com- l bine business and pleasure in proportions | that are eminently scientific. They have I their clubs, luxurious places where music, good-living and good-fellowship prevail. Their wives and daughters enter into their | club life. They are a happy-looking crowd, well-dressed, good-natured and intellect 1 ual. Upon their faces the lines of care and worry that are so prevalent upon New York countenances are not to be found. | CURTIS KINGnAKE.