The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-16
GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM

6OkeF playing Dy women, ASSERTS d
clergyman who shortly is to lecture on
the subject in the heart of Manhattan,
slowly but surely is sapping the moral
tone of New York society. He is Rev.
DR.. Isador Philo, a noted pulpit orator
who has devoted special study to the
progress '.the great American game
is making in fashionable circles. 1t is
a far greater evil than bridge IN this
part of the country, he says-in fact,
he thinks ten women in Gotham play
poker for every one who INDUCES in its
first cousin. That it is fatal to right
living he is convinced. "A woman may
have a full house of good children"
says he, but four jacks will beat her
motherhood and rake in the spoils Of
what makes her lovable and adorable
in the eyes of every full-statured per-
son. Nothing will change my opinion
that the poker playing woman is an
abemination to the Lord. When a
woman plays poker she deals away her
modesty, her @FefiE1enae1ae<s slalAazsssAzeey
Womanhood."
A sympathetic note is sounded by no
less keen an observer than Mrs. Fheo-
dore Thomas, wife of the musical di
rector, who believes many of modern
society's evils are due to the training
-
thinks thousands of divorces in fash
ionable life are the direct result fof
careless education-not in the univer-
sity nor even in the school, but in the
home. "Children's earliest toys gener
ate in them the spirit of cruelty, says
Mrs Thomas. Zone Of theafirst play
things given to q boy is whip, and as
he rides his play horse his mother
urges him to whip the bad horse 1t Is
4Sxo
of America are exclusively responsible
for that sort of thing. If they cannot
refrain from intoxicating such instincts
in the minds Of their tiny children
what can they expect of the little ones?
The boys next present is set of tin
soldiers, on which he is taught to prac-
tice in fancy the cruelties of war. After
that doubtless he receives an air rifle
or at least popgun, with which he is
instructed in the gentle art Of slaugh-
ter. And it isSthe mothers of the coun-.
try. my sisters, who make those ter
rible mistakes. The system cannot be
charged. against the fathers"
When everybody is wondering at
Prince Mirsky's policy-he is the sue
cessor of Won Plehve and is revolu-
tionizing Russia's bureaucratic sys-
TENT turns out most Of his ideas
are derived from his wife. The prin-
cess is a woman Of rare intellectually
and she already has had much to do
in quiet way with the destiny OF the
Romanoffs. Her grasp of the situation
in st. Petersburg is regarded as mar
velous. She knows all the ms and outs
not only of court intrigue but of de-
partmental duplicity. No one can tell
her anything of statecraft-no one in
Russia, anyway, and it is believed by
her friends she is more than a match
for the most astute diplomat of Paris.
She is an athlete of rare ability. and
as she is almost six feet in height,
while the prince is below medium stat
ure, it may be assumed she. dominates
the domestic as well as the diplomatic
doingS of her theoretical lord and sup
posftitious master.
There was a little drama in the
lower end of Madison square yesterday
afternoon in which Miss Anita Stewart
divided the honorsa with Persian cat
and a Boston terrier. 1t almost was
tragedy. and that it did not end as
such was due to the society girls pluck
Tabby had escaped from home in the
avenue and was picking its way in gin
geriy fashion toward the Bartho1di
when the terrier spied it. Yaps and
y
as the two ran. The dog almost had
the feline fugitive when pussy, with
leap. sprang into a tree and Chamber
ed up the trunk barely in time to es-
cape the swapping Jaws, 1t was then
Miss Stewart swung along the west
path. She gathered her skirts in one
hand, and, using her muff as a weapon,
charged the terrier, driving him off in
spite OF his savage snarls and terrify-
frsrr l7c CI o+ 1a4. 1,a
pretty young woman essayed to coax
Tabby from the tree. Tahby wouldn't
bulge. Vainly Miss Stewart held out
inviting arms and cooed pet phrases
sikyward. The eat evidently regarded
her as an ally of the dog. At last the
charming debutante dispatched a pass
ing district messenger to the head
quarters of the S. P. C. A. and in few
minutes he returned with man who
Skinned up the tree and gathered
pussy into a comprehensive grasp. Tha