The Anaconda standard., 1895-11-07
THE DOCK AT HOME.
Clssy Fitzgerald Says He Does Not Cut
Mu n Ice in London, sr


New York Tribune: 1t is worthy of
note that the sharpest lesson the great
American toady has received of late was
administered by that nimble little high
kicker Miss Cissy Fitzgerald, so well
known to the front row of this and other
metropolitan cities. What makes 1t spe-
cially notable is the fact that Cissy her
self is as honest and undisguised cock
ney as was ever turned out of the east
end of London. She is pretty and shape
ly and all that, but she is Enthusiastically
of that class of which Thackeray de-
clared more than once that IL dearly
loved a lord" and which is composed
largely of fiunkeys, whether they wear
plush in the halls of great houses or sell
haberdashery over the counters of shops
along Cheapside. Nevertheless, we find
Cissy lecturing Americans who are in
good society and ought to have self-re-
spect enough to live up to the dignity of
their position. While our society re-
porters" are giving us columns of silly
gush about the Duke of Marlboroughs
clothes. his hair his footgear. his hab
| its and his most unimportant doings:,
while society is gulping this dreary
chronicle of small beer and wondering
when and to what extent the thirst for
more will be assuaged little Cissy Fitz-
gerald, who, by every law of reason and
probability, should be among his most
devout idolators, is saying to a reporter
/ of the Washington Post that "tuft-
hunting Americans do the worshipng,
not the English. 1 read in the American
| papers column after column devoted to
| the color of the Duke of Marlborough's
| hatband and the amount of chocolate
/ that Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt consumes
with her morning chop. Why, when 1t
was announced that Marlborough and
Miss Vanderbilt were betrothed the Lon
don Times (Old Thunderer) had a simple.
dignifed few lines about 1t, and let 1t go
at that"
This little petticoated cockney evil
IDENTIFY does not believe in doing things
by halves. She thinks that the American
toady needs a good talking to" and goes
on to explain that: --
"The Duke of Marlborough was rather
an Insignificant person in London, so far
/ as publicity went. At the theater or in
| any public place he passed almost unno-
ticed. i have often seen him from the
stage as he sat in box at Mr.. Hollings-
/ heads Gaiety or the Princess theater.
| He wasn't any greater than any one
| else, and we never paid any attention to
him. Were he a man of brains. such as
| Anthony Hope, the writer. or Sir Fred
erick Leighton, the painter, we would be-
come Immediately impressed with the
Importance of the parsonage. t."t.
IF Sir Frederick Leighton or Anthony
Hope occupied a box in an American the
ater you may imagine that he wouldn't
monopolize such curiosity and attention
/ as sprig of blue blood like Marlbor-
/ ough. Why, the duke never knew that
/ he was a person of importance until he
/ came to America and read what the
| newspapers said of him and contemplated
with stage-fright the open-mouthed
/ crowds that gazed on him.
| 1T is American dollars, not English
! alteration, that is fostering the encour-
agement of the artificial class that they
| call nobility. / may be too severe on
| English nobility, and If am. then my
prejudice is due to the idiotic samples of
| English Scotch and Irish blue blood that
1 have seen tagging after buriesque ac-
tresses in London"
Instruction such as this from such a
source is obviously opportune and sig-
nifcant. coming concurrently with the
/ laborious efforts of great American
newspapers to inform their innumerable
readers as to the exact color of Marlbor-
ough's neckties, the condition OF his
chest the number and character of his
smile and the material with which he
slakes his noble appetite. The London
concert hall dancer tells US that at home
the duke is not tormented by reporters
and beset by gaping crowds. Many OF
the metropolitan newspapers, on the con-
| trary consider that he is by far the most
important person on the Western hemi-
sphere at the present moment. and that
! all self-respecting Americans are enti-
tied to the latest news about the pimpls
on his chin and the very fullest details
of the function in the course of which he
changes his shirt for dinner. Theirs
seems to be the fervor that animated
Saint Simon whenever he made the fol-
lowing entry-and he did IL often-in his
diary: lie roi sc medicamente."
Upon the whole. II seems TO us thai
Cissy has got the right OF IL. II she
should ever lose the gift OF making hel
slippers twinkle to the entire satisfaction
of the ticket-buying Johnnies a great
field OF usefulness awaits her on the lee
ture platform. Our people. or some oi
them. may need instruction as TO ths
proper way of behaving themselves In
the immediate vicinity Of titled foreign
ers-our newspapers or some OF their re
porters surely do-and Cissy Is cleari,
the person who can supply their defi
ciencies. nt
z