Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20

the '.morEznatic'' wife of recently de-
ceased millionaire Is driving about at one OF
fpe resorts behind a matched team OF horses
that cost $4,000. and on.
Stories Which Arouse Envy.
The ditch-digger or road-payer who tolls
like galley slave for ten or twelve hours
day for $3.50 cannot be blamed IL. In Pc
rusing the piece Of newspaper that wraps
his humble. meauess lunch. he reads of
the Eighty young millionaire who has just
cabled to Paris for the Immediate shipment
to this country OF half a dozen automo-
-biles at a cost of $4,000 apiece, The poor
ly-nourished charwoman or washerwoman
who struggles to shelter and feed half a
dozen young ones on So or 81 a week is
more or less bound to engage in certain
sort OF bovine ruminatioR when she reads
In a borrowed penny newspaper OF how
certain reckless women In Newport ruined
their 81. 600 and $4,000 costumes during the
latter hours Of a function the other night
when the fun become fast and furious
that 1t developed into a wine-tossing orgy.
Men who decidedly do not belong to the
aiarmist type are freely predicting the ap-
proach of revolution in this country, and
especially In New York owing to the unre-
strained, almost insane extravagances OF
the rich. 1t is not necessary to share their
belief In this prediction to feel convinced
that better spirit would prevail among
the sweat-begrimed toiIers, particularly
those who are poorly recompensed for their
labors, II the sensational newspapers would
print fewer of these stories of degeneration
among the ranks OF the rich
New York's Museum Of Art.
The wealthy philanthropists who COM
prise the majority Of the directorate Of the
Metropolitan Museum Of Art are freely ex-
pressing their encouragement lately over
the slack interest manifested by New York
ers in that superb institution. Their dis
or ,ant 10 MALL l1I .
mate OF the average attendance at the
museum may safely be based upon the
number this writer saw there one afternoon
last week. 1t was very lovely autumnal
afternoon, the air cool and refreshing, the
sun shining radiantly. and Central Park, in
which the museum is situated. looking its
best. 1t was one of the free days at the
museum-two days In the week, Tuesdays
and Fridays are pay" days. and then the
charge for admission is only a quarter.
Well, your correspondent made careful
count of the people in all Of the scores of
rooms in the magnificent art institution
the floor space of the museum must cover
several acres Of ground-and the number
was exactly thirty-eight. This was at 3
o'clock on bright afternoon. And yet the
Metropolitan Museum of Art is one Of the
very noblest institutions of its kind on the
globe, and the art treasures that are on
exhibition there are of almost incalculable
value and beauty. All Of the persons walk
Ing about the rooms on the day men
toned seemed to be visitors in New
them could be heard expressing their
amazement that the wonderful exhibition
seemed to attract so few visitors. 1t Is
safe to say that on the most Indictment
pay" day Of the year the Corcoran Gallery
of Art In Washington. which could almost
be put In one of the main rooms of the
Metropolitan Museum here. never holds so
small a number Of visitors that men,
toned as having been counted at the New
York institution on this salubrious and fra
grant afternoon.
Only a few years ago the New York news
papers were bowling pitifully because the
Metropolitan Museum was not then kept
open at night, so as to give the poor peo-
pie who have to work all day chance to
see the treasures stored there" and their
bleating was so pathetic that the direc-
torate Of the museum finally arranged. at
considerable additional expense. to have
the establishment kept open until the hour
of 10 o'clock every weekday night. For a
little while there was quite an attendance
at the museum during the evening hours,
but now the evening attendance has almost
fallen away to nothing, SO that. it Is said,
that the directorate are meditating the
abandonment of the idea Of keeping the
museum open after nightfall.
Another Neglected Museum.
1T is the same with reference to that
wonderful New York institution, the Mu-
scum Of Natural History, one of the most
perfect and complete establishments of Its
sort on earth. The extraordinarily inter-
esting collections on exhibition there are
strangely neglected by this population, and
it's attendance is composed almost wholly
of strangers in the city. Even the far
famed Central Park Zoo and the almost
equally fine GOOD out at the Bronx attract
perhaps fewer visitors than the compare
lively new and incomplete zoo out at Rock
Creek Park in Washington. Down in Bat
terry Park here there is the finest aquarium
in the world, and yet the attendance there
has never been what was anticipated by
10 n a n "
institution. One will see more interested
people f1ocking about the comparatively
limited exhibition Of queer fish on view at
the building of the fish commission in
Washington than can be found in front II
the tanks at the New York aquarium On
the average day. C.. L. c.