The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-04
The New Woman At Large.

The New Woman At Large.
A good many eccentricities have to
be excused in the New Woman; but it
is doubted if the ordinarily complacent
and indulgent New Woman's Brother
will sit quiet under the latest one of
these, which consists of going about,
man fashion, from saloon to saloon, in
search of the novelty or the fascination
which the New Woman assumes must
be possessed by such rendezvous of the
convival male homo. If we mistake
not the temper of the said woman's
fraternal relative and guardian, he will
stand Il good deal of foolishness, but
he will not stand that.
But" you ask us, "is it true? Does
the New Woman frequent saloons?'
Aye, that she does, alas; and we have
her own word for it. The esteemed
Syracuse Post of last Saturday cop-
prised thirty-six readable pages, the
whole of them written, edited and
her friends. And on the second of
these pages we see, in black head let
ter, these tell-tale words: "In the Sa
loon Dives" What a Post Woman
Saw on a Tour Among Them" Our
Mortified attention thus abruptly
transfiXed, We proceed to digest the
unblushing details. 1t is admitted. as
a first concession, that "the better class
of saloons are inviting. They have
| wealth of decorations, the service is
quiet and sklllful generally, courtesy
to one another is observed and the
lunch counters are resplendent with
fragile ware and attractive with savory
viands." But from this kind of place
the New Woman speedily descended un-
til she found
saloons where cleanliness seemed I'm.
known, where the crews before the bars
were restless, moving crushes of beast
iality, where the conversa tion was less re-
strained. the floors We're filthy, the clothes
| of the men less cleanly, the hats of the
worn and battered description, and The
smells diaboical, arising from old clothes,
frankfurts, sauerkraut, stale beer, whisky,
gin, tobacco and vile breaths coming from
foul mouths rendered more foul by their
unclean words.
Yet even this was not the ne plus
ultra of the New Woman's hardihood.
For, going still lower, she came to
the saloons where the most dissolute wo-
men hover about. These saloons are
where the windows are covered by shades
or curtains drawn so closely over the win
dows that only Nor the streaks of light
from the sides or through the crevices in
the dilapidated screen 1t would he sup
posed that they were unoccupied. 1t Is
in these saloons of narrow width and re-
stricted room the most violent of the
smells and the greatest license is found.
The language grows coarser, the crowds
are more like wiggling, twisting, squirm-
ing masses of earth worms than anything,
moving to and fro, gesticulating, singing,
or rather believing, and past much SEN
sible movement of any sort, for they were
| unqualifledly drunken.
From an artistic standpoint the ven
turesOme daughter of Eve who is our
pilot in this novel journey through the
slums concludes that saloons, upon the
whole, are unqualified failures. In her
pilgrimage she tells us there were
three places where nude figures were dis
| in the gallery of the millionaire. the Met
| ropolitan Musem or In the art publication,
| they Tor rather the originals) would be
| looked upon as conducive to cultivation of
| the artistic sense, In the reproduction
| they have lost their ideality and while
| Godiva in the former place is of marvellous
| beauty, she takes on the air of the To-
| cality where found, and in a saloon one
only thinks of her as stealing away for
| .l,n,, lao, pnn q L.,
wrongs of an oppressed people. SO too,
| the nymphs of the woods move in harmo-
NOUS grace in the original, but madly
| caper with unseemly motion when dis
| played on the walls of a saloon. What
| may be the reason for placing these fig
| ures on the walls or in the corners of the
| saloons 1t Is hard to comprehend. The
| habitues OF these places are not generally
| of artistic proclivties, SO they do not need
them for studies. They do not seem nee
| essary in any other respect and the only
reason imagined is that they lead men to
drink in order to forget them.
The New Woman tells us much more
She tells us, for example, that in one
place she saw "a forlorn, watery eyed,
purple faced, trembling wreck of a
man once doing prosperous business.
In another a strong, fine looking man
was displaying a roll of bills and spend
ing money freely, whose wife is deli
cate, educated woman with two babes
and takes in washing in order to live"
But despite these spectacles, 50 cleverly
described, not word does she say
about prohibition or moral suasion or
white ribbon crusades. In this detail
she establishes her claim to be called
the New Woman.
But what will her brother say? Or,
indeed, what can he say?
Writing in the current number of the