Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-04
LOF THE IAsTD DECADE
How Nearly New York Society Is
 Modelled After That of Sybaris
Julius Chambers Writes of the Latest Fad That Has Come Into Fashion with Lively Carmencita, But Has Spread
 to the Best Society.
IcoPYR1eHr, 1892. I

The most expensively decorated apart mcnt in New York is a low-ceilinged cellar under a concert hall. It is not locality of refinement. No honest man would ever take an honest woman to in- spect its mysteries. A broad flight of generally sloppy steps leads from the wings of the concert stage to the re- cesses hereunder. For years the place was known only to the gilded youths of the city and their frivolous girl com panions, who slipped down to the se- cluded place to drink champagne and exchange "reminiscences.
 It was often the scene of wild hilari- ty, but history fails to record an ex- change of blows.
 When "the Cork room" was insti- tuted there was no thought that it would ever become the famous place it now is. To avoid the law that prohibits the sale of liquors or wines in the same apartment in which a theatrical or operatic performance is in progress, the thirsty girls and boys were told to step down into the room under the stage, where they could be served with the sparkling wine of France. The secret was not confided to everybody. It was imparted to "the chappies' who could afford to pay for the expensive liquids there dispensed. "A chump'' has been defined as "a big bald-headed man who opens wine" But the wine was gen. erally bought in ''the Cork room'' by started in quest of that phantasmagori- cal delusion called "amusement."
 To their extravagances the apartment Stc ,%z Its walls and ceilings resemble nothing so much as bed of mushrooms. By actual count 52, 900 champagne corks, ot all characters and conditions, some with records as pure as snow and others with dou ubtful pedigrees, have been imbedded in the glutinous p1astering in such forms and designs as to trace, applique like, flowers and names therein. Think of it! A resort to the multiplication table shows that the wine table has in- veigled more than s2OO,OOO out of the pockets of thirsty young bibbers. A very large amount to be checked off to the account of utter wantonness!
 About year ago, widely heralded Spanish dancer came to this country and made her appearance on the stage over the Cork room. Carmencita be- came, in a few weeks, quite the rage, and many of New York's best people, ladies and gentlemen, visited what has previously been considered a disreputa- ble resort in order to see the ponderous, dark-skinned Andalusian girl disport herself. Several of the social nabobs of New York secured the services of the senorita to entertain their guests in their own private parlors. It became quite the fad" for ladies of the beau monde to call at her boarding house, in their carriages, and leave their cards. Whatever may be said of Carmencita she certainly did not allow all this attention to turn her head, but treated with naughty reserve all approaches on the part of the aristocracy that were not attended with promise to pay. One of the pretty fancies that she had was to present each of her lady visitors with one of the little match boxes, fashioned from a champagne cork cut in two, and having a silver receptacle for waxen | alumettes. This eccentricity of the stranger girl led to the introduction o1 ''the cork fad'' into some of the most l refined homes in the city of Manhattan Fair young girls, who never by the l slightest possibility could have visited the notorious Cork room, or even heard of it, began to decorate their boudoirs with champagne corlls, culled from al sources. These represented real or i'm aginary entertainments at which sup posed or confessed admirers had beer present, when life and love seemed SC trifiing, when the eyes had glowed witl the fires of youth, when the pulse haG quickened to the first glass of wine