Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-10

coming from tho market, one little, bent
old creature wearing a bleck satin skirt
trimmed with Jet which she must have
6shed out of an ash barrel, blue silk
bodice so tattered 1t must have been
through a threshing machine, and her face
80 deeply wrinkled that the creases were
too deep to ever hope of washing the dirt
out of their depths. One gaunt creature
saw walking erect and never wavering
under double load-two baskets, one set
crosswise on the other, holding nearly three
dozen pots of plants. Another I saw with
babe on her bosom and load of flowers
on her head. The baby was sleeping, the
early sunshine falling full on its peaceful,
dirty, upturned face, and she was carrying
it in sling made by an old shawl tied
round her neck, thus having both arms free
to manage her burden.
speculations of the Flower Girls.
If one goes to the market early enough
one can see the street flower vepders laying
in their stock in trade for the day. Girls
of Is or 16 as blase and depraved, begging .
copper here and there from some well-to-do
visitor in the market, and then bargaining
sharply to get its worth from q gardener.
There are old women, dodderiug, blear-eyed
old things, who have been standing at tho
same corner year in and year out tor 50
long they've forgotten when they beganI
there are crippled men and fippant boys,
and the choice of the flowers they make is q
pretty sure guide to the locality they sell
in. They ali bargain well, and get bit Of
green thrown in if they can, watch like
hawks to see blossom drop from someone's
basket, AMI snap it up eagerly Is 20 much
clear profit
Slovenly wretches they are for the most
part, with flower trays under their arms
and occasionally toddler at their heels or
in their arms little, dirty bundle from
which . faint queruluous, hopeless cry
comes now and then to let one know there
is human being in it One Of these little
bundles was in the girl-mother's way when
buying, so she pumped it down fat upon
the damp brick floor, and some careless foot
knocked the contents of watering pot over
it. Did she mind it? Not bit, but she
let it lie there, drenched, till she got
through with the business in hand, then
caught it up and carried it away swung
under her arm. All around the market
these flower vender squat on the curbstone
and arrange the loose flowers into little
bouquets with skill that is wonderful
when one looks at their filthy, unkempt
selves
Poor Little Mrs. Potter.
Kyrle Bellew and Mrs Brown Potter
for two weeks at the Shattesbury theatre
here, and from the time the curtain fell on
the first nights performance the play was
doomed and the ''notices" given to the COM
pany. Mrs. Potter-I always feel like say
ing "pocr little Mrs Potter" for there is
something so infinitely pathetic in her At
tempts at acting and the remembrance of
what she cast aside and what she reaped-is
thinner both as to person and power than
ever. There's a guerulous, tired look
about her mouth and in her eyes now that
wasn't there when saw her last in WASH
ington as Cleopatra, and, to quote one of
her unprofessional critics, there's not
enough flesh on her to keep her bones from
rattling."
Since "Hero and Leander" was taken OF
the story goes that Bellew has found q
younger, fairer and plumper leading lady
to take her place, and that she will prob
ably return to America and Mr.. James
Brown Potter, who has kept her room just
as she left it, and who has always faith
fully believed she would come back to him
as she very probably will If she does
90, and he in the tenderness of his heart
opens the door to her and closes 1t again
in the face of public opinion, wouldn't 1t
be a graceful, gentle return, and most un-
worldly one, to forget that there ever was
women who recited "Ostler Joe?"
Marshall Wilder Makes . HIT
Americans have assumed nearly ali re-
sponsibilitv to entertain the British social |
public, and they're doing it fairly we'll,
BILE to smother the wish that the sea had |
swallowed the ambition at least, If not the |
body, of some aspirants for glory as draw
ing-room recitera Marshall Wilder spent
several days with Patti at the castle in
Wales, and came back with . scarf pin Of
rubies and diamonds so brilliant that he
wears shade over 1t to avoid damaging his
friends eyes At one of Charles Wynd- |
hams matinees at the Criterion he was the |
fresh stories each time, too.
Mrs Alice Shaw whistles at the Lyric |
Club just before sailing for home, and Jen-
ME O'Neill Potter does her monologue
''Flirts and Matrons" at the Criterion on
the 29th instant.
One of the most successful Of fashionable
of the season was given by
the Lyric Club, at which Mrs. Margaret
Mouton Merrill, who is well known in
and New York as a graceful
writer and reciter, was the chief attraction.
1t was given under the patronage of the
Countess Somers, Baroness Bolsover, Lady |
HenrV somerset, Slr Augustus ana Lazy
Odderley, Mrs Home Payne, Mrs Mackay,
Mrs. Ronalds, Minister Lincoln and others,
and the little theater was well filled with
= fashionable audience.
Lillian Russell, William Sanford and
Colonel Ochiltree made ga very noticeable"
group in box at the Shaftesbury q few
nights before it was closed.
To enter the royal inclosure at Ascot is
quite the seventh heaven of bliss, socially.
Some of the Americans who sported roval
nclosure badges and sat on the lawn in the
shadow of the Prince of Wales box we're:
Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Garrett, Mr.. and Mrs
J ohm G. Hecksher, Lieut.. and Mrs. Emory,
Mrs Vivian Formerly Mrs. Marshall o.
Robert srt,yi Mrs; NsyiO5 Ieyiand (formsrly
William Hayne Belvin. Gen. and MrA
George r. Williams and Col Ochiltree
ELIZA RETH Tna6pHIAra