The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-04
STRANGER in NEW YORK
SHE GOT MORE ENJOYMENT THAN
NATIVES EVER THOUGHT OF.
First Impressions of What She Had
Read AbOut-Came from the West
and Had Enterprise.

The young woman who is spending two
months in town leaned back in hanson
| with great sigh OF. centent. The sun was
shining Fifth avenue looked like the pro-
| tracted entrance to a big beehive she had
huge bunch of violets pinned to her
| smart black coat, and she was happy. The
woman with the aristocratic nose who sat
beside her did not echo the sigh. She lived
| i'm town. she knew all the bees. and she
smelled huge punches of violets whenever
| she liked.
II love these dear, low-necked convey
| ances," said the out-of-town girl. with
little laugh. when 1 put my hands on
the top of the doors and remember the
days at home 1 have lived in street cars,
l feel like shouting to everybody 1 meet:
| This is a hansom.'"
The other woman smiled tolerantly.
1.-THE dream of my life," she said sis
never to have to take one except in emerg-
ency. 1 haven't achieved brougham yet,
you know. Are you having a good timer
she asked enviously.
'I don't suppose" answered the violet
| girl. that shall ever forget the day 1
| first found myself on Broadway alone. You
don't know what that means to somebody
who had dreamed about it all in a scrap of
| a Western town. and knows the names of
| all the theaters. and what is playing at
them, and on what streets her favorite
| playwrights and actors and editors live.
Why at sight at every newspaper office and
publishing house of which L had known
the names, and the signs of all the people
| knew about, from piano makers to candy
| shops, my heart regularly sat up and
waved its forepaws for JOY You don't
| know what Ii is
Il was born here" said the woman with
| the aristocratic nose, discontentedly. Il
suppose L have missed something"
The girl laughed happily.
Truly" she said, Il feel as sympathetic
| over people born in New York and who
can never alight in it, full-armed, for the
| first time, as | do for two people who grow
up with the understanding that they are
in love. and logically marry, without the
fun of falling in love. Neither of you know
what you have missed.
DOUBTFUL NEW YORKER.
The other woman looked straight between
the eyes of a woman in blue in an ap-
preaching hanson, and did not speak. Then
she went on, TRANQUILITY:
"Of course / am devoted to New York,
but can't quite see what 1t is which fas
cinates you all so who come here from
smaller places. A theater is theater, and
the good things do get away from here.
And the large shops in others towns are
really nearly as nice as the large ones here
And people are people. L am sure the
elevated trains and the fact that 1t is New
York are really the two chief things
THE fact that Ii is New Yorh is the
thing, you see, said the violet GIRL 1T is
the bigness of it, But 1T isn't that alone.
Why, don't you see that out West, in my
big overgrown, underdeveloped town, we
are all barbarians. We have two large
o..1 no GUS
papers have TO avoid personalities, because
the town is so small The theater has one
good thing every three or four weeks and
poor things or last years Things In be-
tween. and the rest of the time it is dark.
And there are two places to go for supper
afterward-two. When you go in you
know everybody at all the tables, and you
have seen everything they are wearing
scores of times before Everybody knows
when you lunch downtown and with whom
because the Woman's Exchange-fancy
the Woman's Exchange-is the only place
you can lunch. And it might as well be a
village. If 1 couldn't live in New York
afterward,' said the girl, vague as to
"after" what, II would rather live In
scrap of town which was honest about
being little and provincial and didn't pose
as big"
STILL" said the woman. you only have
just so much of New York to live in and
the spot you go about in most is after all
no larger than smaller town..
But there are enough people to take
turns In going about In IL, said the GIRL
Ito make it luxury TO be stranger to
them all. Them said the violet girl. lean
ing back again, I'VE don't have hansoms
where l live
WHAT SHE DID.
Really" said the other woman, 'just
what have you done here that amused you
that you couldn't have done anywhere?"
WELL" said the girl al did the park
oh, that is fun when you've always heard
about it. Just the feeling that you are in
it is worth something. / did the park in
one of the buses, and / did the Battery. /
went to the galleries, l went over to
Brooklyn-and 1 stood still where you take
the car under the bridge and missed three
De Kalb-avenue cars because 1 just loved
the noise and the delicious mix-up. 1 went
in the churches. in the cathedral and the
Little Church Around the Corner, and oh.
yes" she said, al hunted out Wall street
and Nassau street by myself and went up
in the elevators just for the fun of seeing
the names of the great financiers know
about printed on the ground glass in their
doors 1t was all an experience, and the
mere feeling that L really here
enough TO make me feel good, even If the
things themselves hadn't been interesting"
My dear GIRL said the woman with the
aristocratic nose. fancy your doing all
that by yourself! And the offices. Why
an office is an Office
"Oh, you can't understand" laughed the
GIRL ~ don't expect you TO. / never knew
a New Yorker who could. / went the
Stock Exchange one day. dare say you
have never been there? No? And then /
went down to see one of the great ocean
liners come in, and another go out and to
watch the people. And afterward / went
to the east wharves, and saw the merchant
vessels. and went board-yes, / had
man with me then. And / had one who
took me through Chinatown, and l bought
everything / saw. You have never been
through Chinatown? Well, you ought to-
But things are so much prettier in the
Twenty third-street shops" said the
other woman, land weren't you nervous
about
"Nervous!" laughed the out-of-town GIRL
why it is one of the most interesting
things l have done. And then the cafes
OH" she said with new enthusiasm, don't
you love the cafes?
THEY ARE DIFFERENT.
''Why?" said the other woman, some
times with a party 1 have gone
II know what you are going to say
said the other girl, as she hesitated; "you
are going to say that you have enjoyed
going TO some Of the Bohemian cafes some
times for an experience. That you have
gone sometimes with a dozen people Of
assured position. TO study the rest, and to
regard 1t all as a phase, something
really foreign. and that not one OF you
would have thought of going there serious
ly and deliberate for a supper. weren't