Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-09

phone girls They had a habit of saying.
IN the choppiest imaginable sort of voice.
They're busy" and then dropping right
on the map OF the world, to speak.
lar as the possibility of ever again getting
another word out of them was concerned.
And they had other little squelchatory
methods eminently calculated to cause an
ANXIOUS man at the losers end of the tele-
phone wire to grind his teeth and mutter
dark things to himself. It's all changed
now. though, since the New York telephone
people took up the Chicago school -of-man-
are busy now" she says to you now, in
nute-like tones. SHALL l call you up
again. And thus on. A man is not made
to feel as If he is about to get Jumped upon
now when he steps into a telephone booth
on the contrary, 1t is Just fun and more
than worth the dime to put the receiver to
your ear and listen to her dulcet accents.
School of Manners for L Guards.
On top Of this comes the announcement
that the manager of the l. roads Of New
YORK Is contemplating starting school-of-
niahners game for the L guards. How he
expects to get away with this proposition
without precipitatins the threat Of another
l. strike IL beyond most of the people who
have heard Of the plan. Maybe The l.
guards VIII attend the school IF manners
Just Tor the purpose of finding out officially
what civil manners are. so that they can
disregard them all the more-for there
seems 10 De no reason to do1bt that the j.
employees have a standing and implacable
grudge against the L-rjding citizens OF this
Town. TO the L guards the citizens are all
mugs'-"Git a move on youse now yo,,se
mugs-d'ye tink I'm a-goin' T. keep dis
gate open all de week?" ..Shovs in dere to-
wards de center. an give de mugs On de
platform chanst.' This Is their inva-
riable method of addressing the unfortu-
mates whose business or social needs re-
ou1re them to avail themselves of the L
loads. ANY school Of manners that sue
part of the incivility of New York's r.
guards Will induce such gratitude on the
part of the citizens that they viii be
tempted to present the L manager with a
Department Store Manners
One Of the largest of the department
stores announces that 1t is going TO star.
a school of manners. and rsuyire every one
or Its several thousand employees to attend
the same, from the highest 10 the lowest,
This viii be nice. But 1t is going to be
hard on the employees. mos. of whom arc
girls belonging to the East Side Lojdies'
Chowder Association or the Fourt' Ward
Lydies Dancing Club to be compelled not
70 inquire of prospective customers. What
cnoo want! and to be prohibited from say
ing Amt got it," and then turning their
backs on the prospective customers to dis
cuss the spielin' party of the night before.
me employees. and especially the female
tsmpioyes, or New York stores are soreiy
In need of manners, and a whole lot OF
Them: but at the outset a school OF man
ners is not the thing for thcm-they should
'e required to attend a kindergarten of
manners first.
The Shirt Waist Man.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding the
shirt waist man is going to bob up Zone
cannot say ''serenely" in advance of the
EVENT. again this year. The leading haber-
dashers say so, at any rate, and their con-
hdence is predicated upon the solid fact that
they have the waists in stock and all
in readiness for the shirt waist man, and
the assurances. SO they claim, of any num-
Der of men that they are going to go with
out thelr coats In public this summer pub
lie opinion or no public opinion.
The coatlesS man Is going to win out
for sure thing this summer" said one of
the exclusive 9TH avenue haberdashers
Tor the reason that the chapples are going
to take up the custom of going without
their coats. and, no matter what may be
said, the chappies come pretty near to
pointing the way in matters of dress for
this section of the Atlantic seaboard at
any rate A large number of my Newport
customers have assured me that there is
going to be concerted action on the part of
the men who summer at Newport to intro
duce the coatless scheme there, and if the
scheme wins out in Newport as 1t I'M
Guestionably will, then it'll catch on every
where. Lots of New York men who are
not cranks or novelty seekers are going
without their coats on the streets of New
York on hot days this summer We've all
got stocks of the proper kind of shirts to
be worn by the coatless man, and we did
not lay these stocks in on a gamble nor
without having a pretty fair idea of the
nature of the support that is going to be
given to the coatless idea this summer.
c., L. c.