Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-13

taurants, the little places of the table d'hote
sort freouented by persons In only mod
crate circumstances, where the request
music Is nearly always OF the classical
order. In the so-called swell" restaurants.
where the prices are immoderate on account
OF the number of spendehrifts who frequent
them. and where there are full orchestras,
the demand is all for the ditties OF the day.
Nine out of ten of the requests sent along
to the leaders in these places are for stun
of the ragtime variety. and a comparatively
new feature of the thing Is that when the
band strikes up with one OF these swinging
affairs all hands join in the chorus. II Is
rather an extraordinary thing. in a restau-
rant that is distinguished by every sort OF
gorgeousness, to hear four or five hundred
men and women join In whooping chorus
OF "Dooey-ooley-oo-oo when the orcsesrst
reaches that refrain. But. then. this never
happens much before 2 o'clock In the morn
ing. and there Is not much conventionality
left in the frequenters of the all-night res
taurants of Longacre Square at that hour.
Luncheons for Shoppers.
There Is no need for the shopping women
of New York to reach their homes In the
evening with headaches on account OF no:
having partaken of luncheon. The bargain
luRch era over here dates back about two
years. when one of the big department
stores began offering its patrons a tlp-top
luncheon thoroughly well served. In a fine.
ample lunch room on the top floor of the
establishment. for % cents. Then several
others Of the department stores began TO
offer bargain luncheons, the first break in
prices occurring when one of the 18th street
plants offered Its bargain luncheon for y
cents.
ment stores made further cut by Offering
a tidy luncheon to Its patrons for IL cents.
The proprietors Of the store couldn't under
stand why this 13-cent luncheon didn't
"a
irons. until they bethought them of the I'M
lucky significance of the number thirteen.
They concluded that the superstition of the
average woman is such that she would be
afraid of ptomaine poisoning gastritis
should she partake of luncheon costiag IL
cents, and so they cut the figure to l. cents.
Immediately they had so much lul ch ION
business that they couldn't begin TO accom-
modate the women who stormed the lunch
room, and they had to devote more space
to the business.
knocked out of the bargain lunch scheme by
stu another innovation. This is not ex-
actly a womans free lunch but it is some
thing pretty close to il. A 9TH avenue store,
with big lunch room for its women pa
irons on the top floor. provides its regular
customers with excellent lunch-the
meal that used to cost - cents-to any wo-
man who purchases 81 worth of goods III
the establishment
Watterson and the "Four Hundred"
IL
| lot of good-natured chatting from a num-
Der of New York friends night not
long ago. 1t should be said that New York
was rather diverted than aggreved over
the colonels harsh arraignment of the
-four hundred Of New York. The atti-
tude of New York was, "Supposing IT is
all true, what are you going to do about 1t
what is anybody going to do about it?'
On this night Colonel Watterson occupied
with a party a box at OF the Broad
way theaters where Pinero play is on
view. Like every Pinero play, 1t is work
of extraordinary dramatic merit, and 1t is
being performed in New YORK by a COM
pany of remarkable strength But from
the moral point of view the play is utterly
and hopelessly vile-perhaps the baldest
and most braZen affair that was ever al
lowed to run on the New York boards with
out the intervention Of Comstock. 1t Is
a story of English society life, and the
showing Ii makes of that life could not
well be much worse.
Colonel Watterson sat in his box sway
ing with ectatic appreciation of this VI
ciousy, almost wantonly. unhealthy play. He
burst pair of very sound-appeaFing gloves
appla uding the thing. and he grew red in
the face with sheer approval at every one
Of the climaXes.
There were perhaps twenty well-known
New Workers in the house who knew Col
onel Watterson, and the guying that they
administered unto him after the play was
over for giving such frantic manifestation
OF his approval OF picture Oh vice III l.ns-
lish high life after his lofty thunderbolts
hurled at New York's -four hundred" was
something huge. Mr.. Watterson was very
good-natured about it, taking the safe
ground that he had only applauded the
acting and not the play. but they wouldn't
permit him to wriggle out of it SO easily,
and when he made his retreat 1t was under
fire.
The tremendous vogue which owen Wis
ter's clever COW punching novel, THE Nir-
ginian," is having over here is already hav-
ing it's effect upon the makeup Of the CHAP
pies who ride in the park and on the
boulevards every day. Up to a month or
so ago their riding toys were distinctly on
the English order. But now that every
body is talking of 1.-The Virginian." ard
the young women are dreaming OF the CEN
trail figure in the Wister story, they're be-
ginning to go in quite heavily for far west
ern effects when mounted. They do not,
II is true, go the length of donning leather
chaps or wearing a six-Shooter and cart
ridge belt. but they're nearly all of them
wearing huge dented sombro ros, and good
many of them have taken TO very high and
shiny boots with tapering heels. Indeed, a
few of them have discarded coats ana are
wearing blue flannel shirts with handker-
chiefs knotted a la cowboy, and there is
a general wild-west- show effect about the
parade of the riding chappies on the boule-
wards Just now that can only be attributed
to the overwhelming and deserved success
achieved by the Wister story {. l.. &.
1.Nrm u0MAN,, AN ANCIENT