The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-12
n DANGEROUS PLACE FOE MEN.
New York. MAY 9. 1S9!

- WSAAeJ IliAI VI SllEGl, DelNGGll II LII ctuN
sixth avenues. Sterns in the center OF
the block, is the central point of New
York shopping. To the right and LEFT
are shops with large front windows filled
to the full with the delights of woman
hood. The shops are packed and the
broad sidewalk crowded during all the
shopping hours of every bright day
from January to December.
Now when a woman is shopping she
Us either in some one particular shop en-
gagged in the actual business of shop
ping, or she is hurrying like mad from
one shop to another But hurry as she
may, she will never pass an intervening
shop without looking in at the window
The sidewalk is therefore filled with wo-
men who are skurrying in one direction
while their eyes are fixed in a direction
at right angles to the line of skurry
Every living man has occasionally expe-
Tienced the difficulty of passing an indi-
vidual woman even with half the appa-
rent sidewalk to himself in which to ex-
ecute the manoeuvre. He may get by in
safety If there be no accompanying UNI
brella, and If from the visible direction
of the woman's eye he can calculate her
trajectory. If her eye be turned he Is in
imminent danger, though she have left
her umbrella at home; for no dexterity
can avoid her wobbles. How stupen-
Il dous the danger when he Is suddenly
confronted by thousands of bodies swift
ly moving in excentric curves which he
Is unable to calculate! Every day men
are bumpted and bounced, squeezed and
corroded, until the breath is knocked
out of their bodies and every outlying
bit Of garment is torn to tatters. Hap
ny are they If they escape alive. with
ilnbroken bones and remnants to mod
estly clothe their manly nakedness
\ Experienced New Workers shun the
block as they would the playground Of
bounding bison. Let the unsophisticated
countryman take warning. Let him not
be lured by the broad, fine show of the
street; by the palatial buildings with
their glistening marble fronts. If
caught unawares let him rush with all
his might and main to the north side,
where traffic is general and man has a
show. Or let him scream out for police
protection with the full strain of his vo-
cal chords.
"A natural question is why is man the
sole sufferer? Why does not woman
suffer as well? How can she inflict
damage without herself receiving hurt?
The question requires a considerate an
swer. In the first place the damage
man receives is not received from one
woman, but from thousands. 1t is made
up Of an infinitesimal number of bumps
administered at infinitesimal distances
,irrl, I,o
with herosm were they spaced. but the
uninterrupted shocks are crushing.
Again, If you watch from a safe distance
IAN upper window is best-you will be
amazed to note that two women rarely
collide. Call it intuition, call it psychic
Intelligence, call it spiritual instinct call
1t what you may; there is marvellous
power controlling the gyrations of shop
ping women which must have relation to
the laws which govern the revolutions of
the celestial spheres. You see two large,
full grown female bodies approaching
each other with irresistible impinge.
Your heart is in your mouth. You
would cry out in terror. But just be-
fore the instant of impact, like fish in a
tank, they glide around each other in
graceful curves, and without moving
eyes from the right-angle attractions in
the shop windows. After a while you
become so accustomed to the marvel that
you enjoy the spectacle as a new mani
Hesitation Of the harmony Of natures I'M
revealed forces.
Now and then two women do bump.
But no damage is done, for they are pre-
pared for the accident. Inquisitive man,
endowed with an appreciation of the
beauty of the female form, has often
wondered why woman has lately donned
padded shoulders built out in the fash
lon priced by Bowery boys of years and
years ago. From a safe perch above the
throng on Twenty third street he may
see and understand. The padded Shout
der is not a vagary of fashion, but a ne
cessity of shopping. 1t receives and |
deadens the few shocks which escape the |
physic Law of glide. Within the modern
padded shoulders the delicate form of |
is safe, while with them she can |
buck intruding man into oblivion, Be- |
tore the bargain counter they secure her |
space for handling goods. Tn the trolley |
she can breathe In peace amid sardined |
crowds
LIE VI llCledocu 'Jlcdhln VI
shoulders is decreased breadth of hip. |
Woman does not propose exposing and
two points of her person.
One is enough. So the additional pres
ant fashion, also necessity of shopping,
s no hips to speak Of They must be
xept well within the protecting perpen-
licular of the shoulders. Garments
must be drawn about them as closely as
possible. If man were permitted the i'm
pudent experiment, he could plunge
orobang through six inches of artificial
shoulder before reaching the genuine ar
icle; while an instrument one-sxteenth
If an inch in length would suffice for ex-
oloring hip surfaces. Shoulders are so
expanded and hips so contracted that no
lotion is conveyed of the actual form.
rhe woman of the day may be an adj
nirable shopping machine. She is far
rom the model of beauty for which the
male heart yearns.
If the dangers of Twenty third street
ire reserved for man there are other
View York dangers to which all are ex-
,osed and Of which so far all seem I'M
conscious.
Since the trolley wires have been put
lnder ground, they and other wires form
beneath the surface of the city a vast
network Of wiring charged with the
,,ocf trop,en6O1e fOroa VET 5iScouara1 |