Evening star., 1898-09-03
What the People of Gotham Really
Think of Themselves.
OTHERS DO NOT AGREE With THEM
Women as Cloak Models and Men
in Public Places.
A JOCKEY IN HIGH LIFE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

tinuous performance houses mere, was
speaking yesterday of how easy it is to en-
tertain New Workers.
you'd fancy them to be blase and diff
cult wouldn't you?' said the actor. You'd
imagine them to be blanketed in a chill of
cosmopolitanism. would you not? Take
the mute but eloquent attitude of the New
York man in public for example. IT says:
I am just about as foxy and deep as
they're made. 1 know the game. I've been
Up against the whole thing. You can't fool
me. You can't lose me. I've been in this
town too long TO be taken in. I'm finished
and groOmed. and I've learned everything
that can be taught in this school-ard it's
q pretty swift school, too. isn't it? You're
going to have a job If you think Won can
move me. one way or the other. Above ALL
don't imagine you can wiring a laugh out
of me. That's out of the question. We de-
wise laughs for the whole continent over
here. you know. / know the whole gamut
of fun and woe. Don't waste your time
imagining that you spring any new
ores on me, of any kind whatsoever. I'm
Moo Yawker. and the world just rocks
around Moo Yawk. It's got to. 1t can't DO
anything else Therefore, don't bother at
tempting to tell me things I've got every
thing you want to say discounted In al
vance. Lemme alone
This is the New Workers. attitude as It
pISStntS llStll 10 me, ana i nave
devoted some considerable time to the
study of MIN.
The attitude is a pose. pure and SIM
pie l shall descend to the patois of the
pave long enough to say that you can sell
gold brick TO a New York man very
much easier than you can purvey gold
brick to a citizen of Peoria or Keokuk
long enough, also. to say that the New
York man is nothing more nor less than
huge. Gargantuan bluff. He just wants
you to think that he knows it all He
spends all of his time endeavoring to
stamp that impression. AS matter of
fact. he is an agriculturist with a shave
shine and the other essentials to what
he calls "a front For inborn cleverness
width, reach, genuine smartness and
shrewdness. and. above all, for the thing
called cosmopolitan your New Yorker Is
baby in comparison with the Chicago
man. the Denver man, the St Paul man,
the san Francisco man. the st. Louis man,
the all-there New Orleans man or for the
matter Of that, the Washington man-and
by the way, the New Yorker who has ever
broken away from his own fireside<Gn a
fat long enough to visit Washington calls
the capital the city of the Sunday calm
and expects you TO applaud what ne thinks
Is bit of humor
If you don't believe all of this make a
round Of the places Of theatrical entertain
ment that are doing business just now
Note how the packed houseful of New
Workers goes into Mysteries over stunts
that would make free Christmas houseful
OF reWSboys in some towns fill the atmos-
phere with Cat-calls and groans. At the
continuous performance house wherein l
work-and the phrase work is not used
fancfuny-1 say some reasonably new
things when 1 first come on. But New
Workers like to get their moneys worth
ana they bestow numerous hand upon ne.
Then reach back into the cobwebbed fis-
sures of the past and relate unto their at
teEttve ears old, old, very old ones that
l rsed when they were fairly new and
/ v as extremely new, down in Washington
rhny-
Like not corn on the cob The whole front
OF the house Is a sea OF grins. Often 1
say unto myself when am about to dish
them one that was moth-eateu down in
Washington before PENNSYLVANIA avenue
ever saw a strip of concrete, This will not
DO; m sure to get called Then 1 plunge
n all the same, just to test them up to
the limit Does 1t go? Does a stake horse
go? oh, Ze New Yorkaire he is YER YER
drcll. believe unto me-"
did make a tour of the halls and gar
dens that same night. The Washington
actor had it exactly right. The New York
er IS the most easily entertained of living
sentient human beings. This positively hap
pe1ied at one Of the continuous perform
aIce houses-a place of amusement some
What above the average of its sort, fire.
quented by men about town or chaps
who aspire to fall under that heading
"a ItIoW lnthe makeup of an Irishman,
assisted in his turn" by a merry little
pe1oxided soubrette who couldn't have
weighed much less than fourteen stone,
asked her:
Me dear. did yeez liver hear a chocolate
dhICp?''
The merry little soubrette's reply was
drowned by the shrieks of laughter in the
audience.
VIII, thin. did yeez liver see a horse av?,
Inquired the Irishman of his stage partner.
II was fully two minutes before he could
go On. the roars in front were so noisy.
Ell me- thin, me pritty wan, if yeez
iyeT seen side walk2'
Inc mousse In very tunn1t of 70
cl1erous laughter when 1 ca NE away.
Ore does not need tc be finicaI to exneri
ence certain amount of shock over the
base uses to which the American flag is nut
In New YORK. In Chatham square, the
other afternoon, a sodden sandwich man
patrcted dreartly uD and down. His fore
and-sft sandwich consisted of a couple of
oIoloth star spangled banners nailed to
boards, and. printed in big black letters
across both flags. was the announcement
that dress suits could be hired at a GER
tain number on the Bowery for a, cents a
night. The bill boards flame with Ameri-
can nag posters advertising cheap shows,
ana an uptown chlroDOdiSt and corn salve
man has scores of the Harlem dead walls
b4azing with paper flags of the country
heavily inscribed with more or less beIiev-
able testimonials as TO the efficacy of his
wares Patriotism for revenue only seems
to be peculiarly q New York manifestation.
In no other American city, it may be said
with In punity, would such vulgar uses of
~ permitted here. Last week the anar-
chistic proprietor of an Hungarian restau-
rant on Avenue A, which is not thorough
fare OF delight, furnished his dingy institu-
tion with a complete outfit of new cus-
pidors- The cuspidors. of the hour-giass
shape, were painted all over with tiny
American flags. An American citizen who
was nc less an American because he was
at the time. in possession of about three
parts Of what Is coIloquialIy known as a
jag, happened into the restaurant. He
Caught sight OF the cuspidors, and, to his
lasting credit, he picked each and every
one OF them ~ and threw them through
the restaurant windows into the street In
the police court the next day he paid for
the damage he had done, but he told the
magistrate fatty that he intended to see
that the Hungarian did not use the flag
cuspidors again Instead of commencing
the American citizen for his genuineness of
feeling in the matter, the magistrate threat
ened to fine him for contempt of court. and
tod him he'd better mind his own business
II he didn't want "a trick over at the is
land" The American flag cuspidors are
now in constant use at the Hungarian,s
garlicky restaurant.
While a considerable number Of the Ns,,