Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-12-21

New ToRK, Dec, l5.--lt is duplex
world. We have duplex lamps to light
our way, and We find them troublesome to
take care of. There are all sorts of patent
duplex things, but there is nothing quite
so prominent in New York rs the duplex
life. Nobody ever does know his neigh.
Dor. That is absolutely true in the material
sense. Rut even in a social sense il is
marvellous how little we grow to know one
another And this is getting, this really
knowing people, to be more and more
difficult, until in time the outward visible
sign-that is the people MS we meet them
will have no more absolute reality than
a visiting card.
And then there is fashion in every
thing-in emotions, in vices and in virtues.
Two yenrs ago, when you met the very
swell man walking with woman rouged
upto her eyes, BACKED about the brows
and lashes gilded us far as her hair went,
and very loudly gowned, you looked the
other way and concluded he was with
somebody whom he ought not to know.
Nowadays, you meet him with refined
looking woman, quietly dressed, rather
pale looking, with dainty but chic little
bonnet on, perfectly gloved and booted,
having her hair of its natural brown shade
twirted in aasimple little knot, and you
look at him with pleasure, stop to smile
and bow, and the man who is with you
suddenly says, Don't pretend to see Mr..
Merryboys.n And when you ask why, he
answers in very sedate tone, ION, you
are not supposed to know the lady who is
with him."
THE PACE THAT KILLS.
Later on, you meet woman whose
cheeks are not merely rouged, but painted;
whose hair is not merely Dleached, but
colored Titan red; whose eyebrows are
intensified by pencil, and whose blue
veins are brought out by another one; her
frocks are combination of lace velvet,
fur, all most conspicuous. Her bonnet
glitters with spangles, the strings of it are
pinned up with huge diamond ornaments,
and her muf is hung on her neck by a
chain of gold, with here and there q dia-
mond and here and there pearl. She is
accompanied by afastlooking young man,
and to your establishment the man who is
with you gives her most courteous bow;
accompanied by that smile that means
social equality. You look al him in amaze
ment. His mouth witches queerly, and
he says, That is Mrs Merry boys."
You give gasp that no exclamation
points could express.
And then he goes on to explain: .tMy
dear girl, the last time you were in New
York, things were quite different; the So
called fashionable men, especially the very
rich ones, solaced themselves when away
from their wives by the companionship Of
loud, overdressed, vulgar women, who got
were VIGOROUSLY unfaithful. In their de-
sire to be like the English, they have
changed all that. Then, too, their wives
copied their mistresses. And the rouge
pot and the pencil aud the cigarette and
the brandy and soda were as much in evil
dence in the dressing-room of the mon
dame as they were on that of the lady of
the demimonde Now, the last woman,
whatever she may be, always understands
mankind, and so she veered around and
has become. at least in appearance, quiet
refined and decidedly well-bred looking.
Where Mr.. Mertyboys used 10 delight III
having Tom, Dick and Harry know the
young woman whose diamonds he paid
for, and who did him the honor of at
tempting To ruin him, financially, he now
makes il great favor to present any
of them to Mrs. Robinson or Mrs
Darcy or Mrs. Jermyn (she is always
Mrs. Somebody. Indeed. 1t is much
easier to meet Mrs. Merryboys than
to meet the other woman. He has her
installed In pretty house. in quiet
neighborhood, and there she receives him;
there she makes pleasant dinner for him,
and those of his friends whom he chooses
10 present TO her. She has quiet little turn
out, and. some day, being very wise in her
generation, she bears him u son or a
daughter, as nature elects. She is anxious
TO get the reputation of faithfulness, inst
as Mrs. Merryboys is Cultivating, at least,
the appearance of it.
DUPLEX MEN AND WOMEN.
Dangerous? Much more so than the
other type, for Merryboys and his kind
will, as soon as they get the chance, marry
these women who cater to their desires iii
every way, who are apparently unseltish
and who have the time to make, what Mr.
Merry boys does not, q home for a mar
rather than what is merely known as |
gay house. You look at me with surprise
Don't you remember at what what New
Workers are pleased to cali the CLOTHES
Horse Show p That your mother wouldn'
ask me the names Of the women in tn,
boxes because she thought they were Sc
painted and so overdressed that the,
couldn't be respectable? And yet they
really represented the young married
women OF New York. But. as an English
man said. how much more genteel they
would have looked if they had Wort
smart cloth gowns instead of gowns tina
seemed suited only for visiting and no
for what, after all, was an adjunct to tn
stable. So you see. my dear, the fashion
changes even in our sins.
Duplex. That word seems to haunt me
Yesterday afternoon at a tea, u pretty gin
of about 10 chatted with me for awhil
and gave me rose. i told an old Ne,
Yorker who gave it to me, and he said
There is duplex story. The child
father was deacon in the church; Ii
represented the richest and strongest elt
nent OF conservatism here years ago. II
married the daughter of very rich mar
and she bore him five little daughters tht
girl is the Oldest His name was on ever
subscription list; the people employed b
him revered him because of his prei
honesty. He refused to see any vice
" the world, and most people Thought til!
when death came to him he would ha,
no sins to atone for. Death did come, an
very suddenly. The next morning I'll
papers were filed with notices about hin
and in one or two of them was his pictur
That afternoon, woman came to ii
house and insisted upon seeing the wido
M or her father. She saw the father, and
SHE TOLD HIM HEa STORY.
She had often read of the great phila,
thropist and the good man, but that NOR
Ing when she picked up the paper al
saw his picture, she was Mortified. Yea
before she had married a man who to
her that he was a travelling salesman, wi
made pleasant little home for her in OF
Of the small villages just out of New Yor
and who spent one week in every mon
with her. She had two sons, and thous
the name of her husband and that Of d
philanthropist was not the same, still tn
was certainly her husbands picture. III
father being a man of great sense listen,
to her story, and before asking for proc
of 1t, took her to see the dead man.
once she recognized him, told off TAFT,
mark on his arm, and then suggested tn
his check book should be looked at al
that his papers be searched. For hersel
she produced her marriage certificate az
innumerable letters he had written to he
She had been married to him three yea
before he met the second woman.
course, she was his wife. Her childrt
were legitimate and the others were nc