Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-01
NEW YORK DESERTED.
Not Depopulated, but the Best People Al
Out of Town.

TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FfwHR IN THE
MErRopoLn IN DOG DAYS THAN II TIE WIN
| TER-PLANs FOR THE NEW PROTESTANT cATHE-
| DRAL-IHE HoMHLrKE PLAYERS cLuB-NorEs.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
| NEW YORK, July 50, 1891.
| THIS Is JUST ABOUT Low TIDE IN NEW
Il York life. 1t is estimated that the mid
winter population of the city is 200 900 in excess
of the inhabitants in the dog days. Hence.
as you remember, our tears at the census
enumeration. At present our loathed million
aires and . vast multitude who would like to
be SO loathed are scattered through the country
\ and the whole world redistributing their ILL
gotten gains in golden shower that falls like
heavens rain. upon the just and the unjust
The centrifugal impulse this year has not
shown any novel or very marked tendency.
The idea apparently is to stick to the approved.
1t is easier to be conventional and, a. rule, it
is more comfortable.
In making an analysis Of the hegira one
would be interested to find how much larger
the ratio would be in the intellectual life to
that Of ordinary trade. Does the mind in its
higher energies need a holiday more than other
| facultiesf 1t would seem SO from the practice
| OF mankind. The parsons have long been the
| theme OF censure for their protracted rest, but
| they are by no means exceptional. The law
yers clear out in body; do the literary
clans, the artists, the actors and almost every
body who lives bookish life. The chief ex-
| ceptlon, as a class, are the doctors. and even
| they arrange their business so as to be absent
| large part Of the summer. It's very i'm
prudent for any New Yorker to get sick in July
| or August, as ten to one he will have to serve
| as subject for experiment by crude substitute
talent. Thus both soul and body are left pretty
much to shift for themselves by the regular
supply With regard to clerical absences
| however, II must be said that a much higher
| standard of duty has been fixed of late years
| More clergymen stay with the can t-get-away
| million for part of the summer at least, or il
| they do not the churches make more adequate
| arrangements for the maintenance of religious
| facilities. And these efforts are supplemented
as have noticed in previous letters, by won-
| derful activity in practical Christianity in the
shape Of physical relief for the poor and i'm
| prisoRed.
THE NEW CATHEDRAL.
long step forward in the great enterprise
OF providing the city and America with befit-
ting Protestant cathedral has been taken in
| the final selection of architects Unfortunate
| nrm Is Helms Lafarge. The style, which is
| 10 De Byzantine, reflects a compromise between
| the adherents on the board of trustees of the
dome and the spire. 1t was maintained that
| any purely Gothic structure would be open to
| the charge OF initiating st. Patrick's Cathedral
on 9th avenue; on the other hand no Michael
| Angel appeared with new ideas about a DOME
| The Byzantine will embrace both features in
| an original and effective combination, and it
Will afford an opportunity for decoration in
accord with the genius of our day for the
| sumptuous. We shall, no doubt. be given a
feast of color as we'll form. And especially
grand viii be the glass work, field of art in
which the United States now challenges the best
contemporary skill of the world, and the best
| that the past ages with their lost arts can
| show. Very properly the architects are given
large discretion, and they will have years of
| leisure In which to perfect their plans, but
now it is reasonably clear sailing. The money
Will come as needed, for some of the richest
| men III the world are behind the enterprise
| and committed to its success. and hence we
may assume that In time New York will have one
| OF the greatest temples on the fOotstool And
by the time it is dedicated the wisdom Of those
who located it will be amply justified.
THE LATEST FAD IN CLUBS.
The pet among the New York clubs just now
is ''The Players" 1t is vastly popular and for
very good reasons, the chief being that it is
really coy and homelike. Most clubs are
merely splendid; this one is interesting. As
you may remember. it owes its existence to the
| Hberallty of Edwin Booth, who bought an old
| fashioned residence in Grammercy Park next
door to the vacant Tilden mansion, filled it
full of his literary and artistic treasures and
| his professional memorabilia, making il a sort
of museum, and then gave the whole property
| and collection outright to the Players' Tlub
the organization that was to inhahit this shell
and constitute its life.
| The idea ..took" tamousIv Rv tho copstitu
ton the membership not restricted to
actors, and outsiders of all professions bepan
| to apply for admission. Soon the roll Grew
until now it includes a large number of the
best men in New York clubdom. So varied. in
Decd is the membership that some wit has
| voiced the situation by the widely quoted mot
t uia.! ne ilheu me fIayers because there you
The naIsces on Etb orer'o ,;b. III AL.
a lesson in true comfort from the 'ouiet re-
| tired. home-like PLAYERS. The effect ia dine
partly to the neighborhood. which thus far has
successfully resisted the march of trade" and
| remained an oasis and tbe last down-town
oasis. of ouiet shaded home life amid the roar
and rush of merropolitan trafic. Another CON.
| tributinp cause il the cbarmino .rranoement
| of the broad. roomy old bouse yerv wisely left
| carefully alone in the adantation 10 cInb rnr.
| noses TThus the members md their onssts
| NAV he served at lunch on the vide and inc.
| treilised yeranda at the rear overIook;ng the
| welI-kept garden and the neat yards of
neichbars. ma utterly retired from the
whirl of life as II a hundred miles
| from Madison Souare instead of gaw rodS
Rut more than ali nerbans there ia n FEELING
of honest good Fellowship and an element of
| genuine interest in the Climb as a nninne and
| s'AN~S