Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-21
They Do Not Impress Pr0vinoials as
Being Very Remarkable.
EASTER PARADE Was NOT SO MUCH
Queer Types That One May See
in a Prominent Restaurant.
MANY ILLUSIONS SMASHED


NEW 1Ohh, ApTl w. I''V'-
Perhaps illusions are made to be shat
tered Could any mere provincial, any
wide-mouthed outlander. after listening for
many years to extravagant descriptions OF
the superb Easter parade of beauty,
wealth. fashion and quality" in the 9th
avenue of New York be blamed for taking
up stand, bright and early on Easter
morning, on the curb of one of the num-
bered streets directly off the 9TH avenue,
and there waiting for it all to happen-for
all the splendor of which he had heard so
much to burst upon his envious gaze? No,
the provincial could not be blamed, any
more than he could be blamed for going to
the Westminster Abbey on his first visit to
London
Well. the Westminster Abbey exists; you
see it. in its massive somber magnifcence;
but the superb Easter parade of beauty,
wealth, fashion and quality" does not exist;
it is simply one of those houses of cards,
you know-one of those sumptuous rhetor1-
cal things, such as might be framed about
a bank of sunset clouds that resemble is
lands; and the provincial comes away from
his coign OF vantage on the curb of the
side street leading into the 9Th avenue,
disappointed, it is true. and yet with some
thing very like smile his face He
thinks rather better of the provincial city
whence he has come to the great metropo-
vincial from Washington, his respect for
the capital rises to tremendous de-
gree, and he says unto himself, ut appears
that, after all, we in Washington are not
such provincials these New Workers i'm
agine to be-
New YOrk's Easter Parade.
For If in Connecticut avenue. Washing
ton, on Sunday last there were not a pa
rade of wealth, beauty, fashion and quail
ity far beyond anything that was ever dis
played of that sort on an Easter Sunday
IN the 9TH avenue of New York, then the
writer hereof simply never saw the great
monolith standing cameO-clear against the
blue hills of Virginia. In 9TH avenue there
were numerous thousands of young men
painfully immaculate in fuzzy frock coats
and aggressive top hats and there were
numerous thousands of young women with
them, whose eyes seemed still heavy with
the labor they must have performed to get
their gowns and hats ready in time for the
great event: some of them, in truth, were
fairly pretty. But where was the wealth,
ard fashion. and quality? Well, 1t was
doubtless all locked tightly behind the
doors of the gloomy, forbidding-looking 9Th
avenue houses: it was probably taking a
day in; and so here was a New York illu-
sion of long years standing knocked into
cooked hat.
However. other illusions remained One
of them clothed the persons who dined at
the greatest hotel in the world-which IS
also the Fifth Avenue-with extraordinary
attributes of beauty and culture, sweetness
and light. Surely, in the main dining room
of the greatest hosiery in the word-have
we not all read of the $Jo0-a-day suites of
rooms. and the 1000 employees, and the
SO, 000-a-yeGr assistant stewards and all
that?-surely, here ought to be found the
beauty and wealth and fashion and quality,
anyhow. If nowhere else. So the provincial
thought, and he went.
Dining and Diners.
Well 1t was good dinner. all right. The
table was set real well. so it was, the at
tendance was excellent if somewhat wolfish
in its gaze toward the wind-up of the meal,
the food about the same that the provincial
had got at considerable less expense in
numerous Washington hotels, and the sur
roundings quite overwhelming in their
well In their costlnesS: costliness is about
the word to use here. But the diners? Did
they seem to be the superior beings that
provincial quite naturally and reasonably
expects to regale his vision with in the
main dining room OF the greatest hotel in
the world?
1t win be well to point out a few Of the
superior beings
At a table over by one of the big win
dows with thrae rotund men who own and
race thoroughbred horses, is a dark haired,
most splendiferously-clad boy, who makes
a deal of noise over his soup, and is very,
very doubtful and gingerly in the handling
OF the various 1OrkS at the size OF MS plate.
He is jockey-th, lad who has just
the Carter handicap at the Aqueduct race
track and likewise the lad who after per-
hitting himself to be left at the post on the
favOrite in the Suburban last summer beat
the horse about the head with the butt of
his whip like a fiend. until women in the
grand stand screamed, and men on the
lawn turned pale and cursed out loud over
the exhibition. The boy Tolls back in his
chair between the courses like any young
In of trio of tOa6V tutors
and chamberlains; and the three rotund
men at the table-a1l of whom have mani
fest difficulty in the handling of their forks
-faWn upon the lad. and seem to be quite
flushed with pleasure when he speaks civil
ly to them-whlch he does not often do
He is short and sharp with Them and one
wonders how long they would stand for his
impertinence wera he not premier Jockey
with velvet hands and an Unborn knowledge
of how fast the horse under him is going
In race. The jockey gazes around at the
women supercilously, as they point him
out to each other with whispers, and in no
wise does he give external evidence of an
apprehension of the fact that In a few short
years he is liable to be a tout in sweater
standing around mournfully in race track
Enclosures, like most of the premier jockeys
before him.
Tammany Men at Dinner.
At table set within a window alcove a
bit further on are four well-known Tam
and decidedly well-groomed quartet-wen-
groomed in the sense that they appear to
have given their tailors and haberdashers
the order to render them into exact im.ta-
lions of clubmen of leisure who have old
names, and that reposeful manner that pro-
ceeds from world-weariness to fall back
upon. The similarity ends with the clothes
The four Tammanyites haye not that re-
poseful manner-how could they have.
them were "fergitting it, and cheese it, de
copying it, and making havoc in the
hearts of the Mays and Lives and Delias
over on the East Side, with never dream
of the aftiuence and eminenee in store for
them through the smiles OF the Tammany
Tiger? In truth, they laugh boisterously
| among themselves, and lean their arms on
the table and tell each other good stories''
filled with double meanings and double
negatives. and they have champagne
throughout their dinner. Irrespective of its
appropriateness to the dishes, and they are
in general just Tammany men, joyous in
the knowledge of pulls. and fat contracts,
and bailiwicks all stuffed away in the hol-
lows of their hands. 80