The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-17
Bah ON DUPLEX LIFE.
Really Knowing People is Getting to
Be More and More Difficult.

Dc MOle dlu M0lt Dlllltult.
Mr. and Mrs. Merryboys and Their
Habits-The Bright and Dark Side
of Life Revealed-A Pretty Damsel
Whose Fathers Life Was Duplex.
Tommy ToddIes Of the Cad Club.
Rich Mr.. and Mrs. Goodheart and
Their Precious Charge-A Charita-
BILE Lady's Ways-Money VIII Never
Down Skeleton.
(Copyright)
New York, Dec 12.-It's a 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 as the
duplex life, Nobody ever does know his
neighbor. That is absolutely true in the
material sense. But even in q social sense
it 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 out
ward visible sign-that is. the people as
we meet them-will have no more absolute
reality than visiting card.
And then there is fashion in every
thing-in emotions, in vices and in vir-
tues. Two years ago, when YOU met the
| very swell man walking with q woman
rouged up to her eyes, BACKED about the
brows and lashes, gilded as 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
gloyed and booted, having her hair of its
natural brown shade twisted in a simple
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
| And when you ask why he answers in
very sedate tone: oh you are not sup
posed to know the lady who is with him"
THE PACE THAT KILLS.
Later on, you meet a woman whose
| cheeks are not merely roughed, but
| painted, whose hair is not merely
| bleached; but c6lored, a Titan red; whose
| eyebrows are intensified by pencil, and
/ whose blue veins are brought out by an
| other one: her frocks are a combination
| of lace, velvet, fur, ali most conspicuous.
| Her bonnet glitters with spangles, the
| strings of it are pinned up with huge dia-
mond ornaments, and her muf is hung on
! her neck by ychain of gold, with here
and there a diamond and here and there a
pearl. She is accompanied by fast-look-
1 ing young man, and to your establishment
| the man who is with you gives her a most
courteous bow, accompanied by that
| smile that means social equality. You
! look at him in amazement. His mouth
/ twitches queerly, and he says, That is
Mrs, Merryboys.
You give a gasp that no exclamation
points could express
And then he goes on to explain: "My
| 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 companion
shipof loud, Over-dressed, vulgar women,
who got drunk, who spent their money,
and who were VIGOROUSLY unfaithful. In
| their desire TO be like the English, they
| have changed ali that. Then, too, their
wives copied their Iaistfesses. "a And the
rouge pot and the pencil and the cigar
cite and the brandy and soda were as
| much in evidence in the dFessing-room of
the mondaine as they were on that of the
demi-monde. Now, the fast 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.. Merryboys used to delight in
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. Some
body. Indeed, it is much easier to meet
Mrs. Merryboys than to meet the other
woman. He has her installed in a pretty
house. in a quiet neigh borhood, and there
she receives him; there she makes a
pleasant dinner for him, and those of his
friends whom he chooses to present to
her. She has quiet little turnout, and,
some day, being very wise in her genera
tion, she bears him son or a daughter,
as nature elects She is anxious to get
the reputation of faithfulness, just 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 de
sires in every way, who are apparently
unseltsh. and who have the time to
make, what Mrs. Merryboys does not, a
home for man rather than what is
merely known as gay house. You look
Der at what New Workers are pleased to
call the "Clothes-Horse Show" That
your mother wouldn't ask me the names
of the women in the boxes because she
thought they were so painted and so
! overdressed that they couldn't be respect
able2 And yet they really represented
the young married women of New York.
But, as an EnglishmaD said, how much
more genteel they would have looked if
they had worn smart cloth gowns in
stead of gowns that seemed suited only
for visiting aud not for what, after all,
was an adjunct to the 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, a pretty
girl of about 10 chatted with me for
awhile and gave me q rose. l told an old
New Yorker who gave it to me, and he
said: There is duplex story. The
child's father was a deacon in the church
he represented the richest and strongest
element of conservatism here years ago.
He married the daughter Of very rich
man, aud she bore him five little daugh-
tiers; this girl is the oldest His name
was on every subscription list; the peo-
pie employed by him revered him because
of his great honesty. He refused to see
any vice in the world, and most people
thought that when death pama IN him ba