The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-31
TWO SIDES OF A PICTURE.
the Sharp Contrasts of Fast Life in
Giddy Gotham


the Sharp Contrasts of Fast Life in
Giddy Gotham.
From the Chicago Herald.
| Nowhere in Gotham town can one find
so perfect a replica of its life as in its
restaurants and cafes. Time was when
certain swell restaurants were hedged
round with the divinity of a king and
kept intact for the august and select
But into these cafes. one by one, have
fluttered many of the pretty painted
night moths of this big town. Women
who have been talked about" women
with past, and present, too, for that
matter: women who have emerged
sensational and vulgar divorce suits,
morally battered and bruised, may be
observed almost elbowing some of the
greatest swells in New York. There IS
very elegant cafe in a magnificent
Fifth avenue hotel, which when opened
only two or three years ago was pain
fully select. Now If one chances to
drop in on a Sunday evening one may
see great many curious things. Per-
hapS one of the drollest complications
was during the recent visit of the Jer-
sey Lily when with Il gay and sump-
tuously attired party she sailed in and
took a table next one where sat a for
mer desperate admirer and his beaut-
full wife. One might imagine the situa-
ton to have been painful in the ex-
treme. but all parties concerned bore it
off with perfect aplomb and skill.
The Pictures Other Side.
So much for one side of the picture-a
conceded phase of metropolitan life
fun, frivolity, fast living, roses, cham
pagne and kisses But IL you leave this
quarter of the town and wander away
from gilded mirrors, onyx walls and
tessellated floors, glitterirS lights,
tables laden with sweets and delicacies;
away from popping corks and the Sc
ductive gurgling of the drink the night
moths best love; at a point where the L
road makes sudden detour, almost
under the shadow Of the great illum-
mated cross of a, a,/well-known church,
you may stumble}down dingy steps into
q place whose contents will tell you an
other story. Here piled in dark corners
and heaped upon shelves, is gathered
the dust from the wings of the night
moths. Here waiting possible custom
ers are the expensive and snowy cast
off garpients worn by New York demi-
mondajnes. 1t Is well-nigh impossible
to walk through the little shop, so
packed is 1t with this soiled, tumbled,
wihe-stained finery, in whose every fold
and ribbon and frill turks hectic tale
4 If these faded frivollties, that some
how remind you of crushed and
crumpled flowers, could speak, what
stories they would tell. / saw one satin
robe of palest rose tint whose filmy
laces were torn as by a raging hand
and whose breadths were splashed
with wine and something darker here
and there in blots. From this silken
skeleton 1t was easy enough to build
up tale of revelry, bolsterous love,
jealousy. alteration, blows, fury, blood.
One wonders looking over these tum-
bled trappings, who ever would buy
them. The shopkeeper told me that ac-
tresses from the variety theaters and
serio-comic singers were her liveliest
customers. Shoppers, too, from the
rural districts are often carried away
by the tarnished tinseland gaudy CLEAN
of the flashy fripperies. and thus 1t may
come about that the lace which rose
and fell over voluptuous breast may
adorn the Sunday-go- -to-meeting bonnet
of a country deacon's consort, or the
best black silk frock of some ancient
God-fearing and reputable spinster.
And SO even in so small matter as a
yard of lace is Fate, that mystery,
typified and illustrated.