Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-16
GOTHAM|TES GO DAFT
Custom of Lioniz.ng Foreign
Nondescripts Absurd.
NEW WORKERS ARE EASY
NETWORKS PASSING AS A SUM-
MER SOCIAL CENTER.
Doings Of the Fast Set and Over Charg-
ing Habits Of the Tradesmen
Responsible.
NEW WORKERS ARE EASY
,c,., Correspondence CT The Evening Star.

NEW YORK. April Is. 1894.
New York's lionizing Of foreign monde
scripts goes gaily n. Here is the Town "
observe the perennial apotheosis OF Euro
pean mediocracy. Just now pair OF young
ish E,neiishmen who make fairish sketches
considered humorous by AIRY and 'Arrieo
! for British periodicals have the freedom ana
the KEYS of the city. In New York they are
the sketchers sketched. Most of the Illus
trated New York dailies have printed pages
or half pages of pictures of them. Ihe ciups
have been thrown open to them Inc Ne"
Workers are fairly fighting to get cnahce
to ride the pair of young sketching persons
around in automobiles. to feed and treat and
toast them, to show them the Tenoerioih
dog.
The most exclusive Eostesses are claiming
them, tuft-hunters Of all ages and sexes are
striving frantically to parade them yet
these two clean-looking young men are
in no sense notables in their own country,
nor do they pretend to be- They are Just
makers of little joke pictures for supposedly
comic English publications. They are enoL-
mously surprised over the reception with
which they have been met here, Dut tney
are, naturally enough, taking the siuauon
just as it somes-they would De more tnah
human to throw such a continuous PERFORM
ance of good things aside even on the
honest plea that they didn't deserve them.
There are perhaps 500 young Americans
earning livelihood by making humo,ous
pictures for the American puplcatlons
whose drawings are far better, both from
the point of view of art anu wit: than those
by and through which this pair or young
rngishmen have achieved their very Hioo-
crate regulations in England
Not a few of these American picture
makers make occasional visits TO Engidnu,
| Do the 'toffs of London cancer an ua us
| in order to give these touring American
sketchers what is called good time IN
| London town? Are their opinions OF ths
| conformation of English women, the sun
| lankness of Englishmen. quoted In the LoIi-
| don newspapers? Are they blown OH by
| the nobility? Are they literally dragged TO
J the best London clubs and forced TO par
| take of choice food and wines? Are they
| but what is the use? Everybody KNOWS
| the answer. Only a year or so before his
death in South America so excellent ana
approved an American caricaturlst as
| Thomas Mast spent several months OF d
summer in London without solitary Eng
| lishman, excepting those to whom ne hao
letters, knowing word about IL.
| Not an English publication even men
toned the fact of Nast's presence In the
| British capital And If they had men
| toned Nast's presence appending the IN
| formation that Mast had been for many
years an eminent caricatur.St in tine
| states" the readers of the item. would have
| grinned or sneered contemptuously and in
quired of each other, what the Daily
| dooce y'knaw. do these infairnal sheets
mean by chuckin' in our faces stuff about
| bloomin' vulgar American sketcher, eh?
| Idiotic Effusiveness.
| New York is so absurdly easy-one can
| never twang that chord too often to en-
| force the lesson and make the point stick.
| These two English sketch makers are not
charlatans, because they came here with
| out any great pretensions, and they are
| fairly smothered over the idiOtic effusive-
| ness Of their greeting. But the pure, dyed
| in-the-wool charlatanS from over the water
| are taken up by New York and fused over
in the same Identical way. Instances could
| be multiplied.
| Only last summer a queer, Sinking
| Frenchman. calling himself marquis,
| and with a countenance that looked like an
| illustration of one of LOmbrosoS types Of
| degeneracy," came over here and fed fat
upon the hospitality and the currency OF
| New Workers until he began to yearn for
the boulevards whereupon he returned to
| them with a stuffed bank roll. He was
said. by his tremendously busy press agent.
| to be one of the great opponents OF the
| French decedent school of verse and prose,
a sort Of spiritualized follower of the gifted
| but unspeakable Paul Verlaine.
| Well, any old thing with "decedent" at
| tachment to 1t is bound to make big dent
in New York. This Sinking and sneering
Frenchman gave readings" from his own
| "decedent' verse to enraptured New York
| society women at the Waldorf-Astorta. lie
| charged them so head to watch his
Mephistophelan gy:ations on the platform
and to listen to his vicious verse, which
| might just as well have been enunciated in
the Chaldean language for all that most OF
them understood 1t.
He was entertained in wholesome New
York homes and made much of generally,
| to the intense amusement of the New York
colony Of Frenchmen, who knew his record
| and character. The gross absntheur, after
| all, of this easy picking had barely got
| back to the boulevards of Paris before he
haey To INIT hfa ohnrrf ario
and the Americans, dwelling with especial
emphasis upon the gulllbility of the New
Workers.!
1t Is an of season for this town when
| some shady European adventurer. his face
| darkly tinctured with walnut juice. and his
| head swathed in the folds of burn0ose, is
| not holding forth as maryelously success
| full "astrologer" at one of the hyphenated
hotels. and by that method getting the
| money in bales.
Only a while back an English chap Of a
| gypsyish look, who claimed to have spent
many years with that freakish but genuine
| character Sir Richard Burton, the ex-
| plorer. made a swell thing of it for himself
| by practcing ''palmistry' in New York.
| Incredible as 1t may seem, this chap
| charged the foolish women of the haut
| monde who visited him no less price than
| $40 land in some instances even more) for
| five-minute reading of their palms. Not
! only that, but, despite the strictly CONNER
| cial character of his fake "esoteric" enter
| prise ne was taken up ana into the New
| York circles always alluded to as exclusive.
| He had made a most cheerful and profitable
| getaway long before 1t was ascertained that
| he was the vagabond son of an English
| butler who had picked up the mongrel pat
| ter of his calling while serving as Tommy
| Atkins In India.
Newport Getting Gloomy.
| Up in Newport they have been having
| alarmed citizens meetings at frequent In
tervals during the past few months over
| the decidedly gloomy future prospects of
that once distinguished summer resort.
| Viewpoints prestige is on the wane, and the
| Newport folks who gain their iivelihoods by
gouging summer residents and visitors at
that place have excellent occasion to be
| alarmed.
Literally dozens Of social personages of
| this town. including many at the very FORE
| front of what is termed "Astor's Peerage,'
| have already announced that they are
| through with Newport for good and ALL
| Many OF them have sold or leased their
homes at Newport to wealthy but quite
unknown persons socially. and the stam-
| pede on the part of all hands to follow suit
has been well under way since last autumn