The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-02-11
Hollow Life of the Boarding
House Dudes.
Preparations for the Cornelius Van
derbilt Grand Ball.
warren Lewis the Dive Keeper and
His Parson Brother - Dull
Times Open Tough
Joints.

Madam is all smiles or Monsieur is
most gracious. You wish to see the
parlors advertised? Yes, they will be
sure to please, says Kans in the Kansas
City Star. No? Oh, then it is prob
ably the second floor front, this with
distinct falling off Of courtesy. 1t is not
the second floor? The third floor hall
room, we'll. madam is busy, you will
have to wait. But it takes man of
more than ordinary courage to persevere
80 far. The social swim OF boarding
houses is study in itself. In the sum-
mer time the casual observer will see the
overflow that makes the front steps of
many of them alive with elegance and
Irritation, but only the initiated know
all that goes on in the winter time. The
club sleigh rides, where the exclusive"
set in boarding house chip in and have
"perfectly elegant moonlight AFFAIRS"
theater parties, Fifth avenue stage and
all emanate many times from boarding
houses and to have lived at one place
we'll up town on Fifth avenue is to have
the entire to the exclusive in any board
ing house in the city.
Miserable hall rooms away up IN the
air let for extravaganza prices in swell
establishments, and it makes one who
knows laugh to see how many men with
the exterior signs of genuine dudedom
bear the unmistakable masks of board
ing house existence. These men are a
good many notches below the fellows
who "live in chambers, don'tyou know"
but they are many times more numer-
GUS and the joke is that on the street, at
the horse show or in the lobby Of the
theater only the experienced can tell the
two classes apart in many instances.
The vast number OF chappies who are
seen about town after nightfall, and who,
to judge by their get-up and air of ele-
CANT Importance are on their way to
some tip top club, to box at the prem
ium fret night or to attend some mil
lionRiress to swell reception, are really
"boasding dudes"
Tie reason why they are always alone
and never by any chance are seen with
a woman, is that the women of their set
cannot bluff the appearance and car
riage as successfully as the men can.
To be faultlessly attired chappie needs
less OF the chappie behind it than is i'm
agined, while it takes more than a con-
ventional get-up to create the right sort
of tone for woman. These boarding
dudes live for almost nothing, after they
pay their room rent and their tailor.
Indeed. many hall rooms in houses OF
respectable location are let without
meala. This means either very few
meals or a sort of light housekeeping
and free lunch combined by which the
inhabitant of the hail room keeps body
and clothes4together and let's soul take
chances. Admission costa little to any
theater and the fashionable promenades
are free to all. Bread and soup can be
had even at the swellest hotels, and
when no money is wasted on breakfast
or dinner, and bread and soup secures
table for at least little while, strict
economy will allow the purchase OF an
irreproachable riding rig, and 80 attired
the boarding dude may be met in the
vicinity of the city riding clubs. If you
are not posted you think he is on his
way to get his cob for bit OF trot. but
he isn't. Half that is written about
the 400 comes from observation of the
clesses described. and that is just what
makes the boarding dudes life worth
what 1t is, and iH all he lives for.
In spite of dull business New Yorkert
must amuse themselves, and, although
it is VIGOROUSLY bad theatrical season
and the florists, caterers and dressmak
ers are all complaining because tbs
smart set is neither giving grand enter
tainments nor paying for those which
were given a year or more ago and fol
sal tha.x afill xnauark n aloao fhnrn
ie O certain amount OF fun going on ir
every social grade that the city knows
and perhaps it is just as good fun as if il
were given at a greater cost than it ia
The great wave of enforced morality
has served to crowd the low dance halls
and gin mills having back room accom-
paniments with men and women OF tht
class that formerly found recreation ir
recognized dehs of vice. Every once il
a while polics captain gives a practica
exhibition of hie high minded devotion
to duty by swooping down on one o
these places and dragging 30 or go peo-
pie to the station house. Warren Lewi
suffered in this way when squad of pc
licemen in plain clothes took possession
OF his place, stopped an alleged comedian
who was about to infiet some OF thu
uI0hfloHtb VI LIE bbOCh Vi ShObbhhtb VI
the audience, and carried the whole
manager, audience. performers and al
to the station house, where they were
locked up for the night. Warren's son
Monte, was arrested ss his represents
tive and, although all hands were bailec
out early next morning, it is admitted ii
sporting circles that the captain of tha
precinct gave Warren pretty black eye
when he raided him. Lewis has beer
for years a we'll known sporting char
acter OF the town, and has figured from
| time to time as the hacker OF La Blanche
the prize fighter, and as the promoter o.
all sorts of contests of the kind that
come under the ban OF the law.
For many years he msintained small
! dancing pavilion at Coney Island, an6
many was the cock fight end sparrine
match that he brought off there. But
he and John Y. McKaue could not pull
together and finally Lewis incurred the
Grayesend chiefs hostility TO such an
extent that he was told to "get off the
iBland," and as that command has never
been disregarded except with disastrous
results to the rebelious one, Lewis
folded up his tents and departed fol
New York, where he soon gathered
about him a band OF congenial epiritf
and opened resort for their especial
edification. Since the Parkhurst rsids
his business mas been surprisingly good,
q fact fully indicated by the discovery
of no less than so spectators in the littl
hall in which his entertainment waE