The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-29
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERCURRENTs OF
THE METROPOLIS.

~.Dead Ones'-The Vanderbilt Hab-
it of Estimating Values by Stood
Bye, Panama-NOt the Canal but
the Hat.
New York, June 27.-For a person
who can keep cool and look pleasant,
there is a fund of amusement now In
the politics of this big, overgrown and
overfed collection of districts and vii
lagos that calls itself the Greater New
York. Nobody knows what the city
collectively wants and the city collec-
lively cannot understand what any OF
its individual rulers want. Politically
the whole town is. in the condition OF
the builders of the Tower of Babel
after they were stricken with confu-
sion of tongues. (Not that New YORK
political tower of Babel ever was built
in any direction even remotely sugges-
tive of heaven.) The builders don't
know who mislaid the last brick and
the architects plans have been lost
hopelessly. up in the Bronx" the
Tammany men are embattled ana
thence issue sounds as of cats O
nights. Bronx politics are of the or
der of the ready brick, and favor
ite mode of argument is to deride Pres
ident Haffen's whiskers which are
large and intellectual and otherwise
ready material for campaign purposes.
In the Bronx the campaign is always
on. In the Borough of Brooklyn, on
the contrary, the political leaders often
do not discern the looming campaign
xNhp
boy is busily stealing barrels. There
the present sheriff has just been con-
fronted with the terrible problem as
to whether his term expires this year
or next. All the home talent is wor-
rying with him, for, as in the bosom
of every child born in the United states
is implanted the hope of some day pc
coming president, so in the heart OF
every person in Brooklyn there springs
the desire to become sheriff some day
Yet, does no one, either the Repup-
lican organization whose man holds the
office now, or the Democratic party
which greatly desires the job, know
when the term expires. And once again
Brooklyn justifieS the Borough OF Man
hattan's favorite tauht, provoked by
Brooklyn's plethora of cemeteries, that
only dead persons live there.
In Manhattan itself John c. Shee-
han is sweeping the air blindly with
a shillelah that fractures the skull of
reputation every time it swings;
a Jacob A. Cantor is smuggling under
one counterpart with Seth Low on
one side and Grover Cleveland on the
other; Bourke Cochran is ready to
Join anybody in anything; and David
Bennett Hill is reaching out furtive
hand again for the leadership of the
state.
It is refreshing, once in a while, to
chronicle a charity whose results are
sure to be Immediately efficient. A
Mrs. A. A. Anderson, quietly and with
out blow or trumpets, has given $780,
600 to build free baths in one of the
tenement sections. The lower East
Side, which figures in literature and
is full of various philanthropic insti-
tutions, has baths enough; but the
region around East Thirty eighth
street has pretty well escaped the
attention of the charitable until now.
There probably is no locality in the
city whose needs are greater; there
certainly is no form of charity better
calculated to give results in better
ing OF the physical and moral status
of the community.
Club circles are discussing with
amusement story concerning W. K.
Vanderbilt, Jr. and Coquelin, the
great great French actor. When the
Vanderbilt yacht was at Nice, so the
report goes, young Willy invited the
canadian aboard. The invitation
was accepted and by way of making
himself agreeable, Coquelin recited
several passages from his repertoire.
His host was enormously pleased and
ri 10 on
ashore, handed him an envelope, say
ing: You have made me laugh twelve
times and made me cry nine times.
The laughs l reckon at 500 apiece;
the tears at 5000. Open the envelope
when you get ashore" Coquelin did
so and found inside $4,000. Personal
ly 1 should regard this story of du-
bious authenticity. 1 very much
doubt whether young Mr.. Vanderbilt
is enough of a French scholar to ap-
preciate Coquelin's tragedy, though he
might be aroused to laugh by the
mans inimitable facial expressions.
But if it is true, it would only be an
other instance of the ineradicable
Vanderbilt trait of reckoning the value
of anything, whether a thought or an
emotion, in dollars and cents. A note
worthy example is the case of one Of
the older Vanderbilts-a near relative
of Willy X, Jr.-who went to church
with friend one day and was much
impressed by a prayer. When the con-
tripution plate was passed he slipped
in roll of bills, absent-mindedly whis-
pering to his friend, IF that prayer
isn't cheap at 800 l never expect to
hear one that is"
Farewell the festive Panama as a
phase of fashion. No style has ever
been so suddenly and completely dam
ned by the approval of the populace
as this rather expensive fad in hats.
In the smaller cities the woven head
gear may hold its vogue for time
yet, but here the well-dressed man has
put it away from him as an unfit thing
and returned to the old fat-topped
sailor OF course the reason is that a
flood of cheap limitations has flied the
market, and every lounging corner CT
nament and perambulating "masher'
has one perched jauntily on his intel
lectual peak. The worst of it is that
the expensive, genuine article, -anging
from S15 to $50 isn't to be distinguish
ed at one yards distance from the
''snide." There is specially deep grief
among the young Wall street men who
are the best dressed set in the city,
and act in general as the glass Of
fashion and the mould of form TO the
masculine populace. AS they would
say, they bought Panama heavily"
Anything less than a 500 hat was re-
garded as cheap and unworthy. Now
you see that set going humbly about