Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-08-04
SALOON cHATElAlNE.
Novel social Departure in New Yor


From the New York Sun: Of course
it's not society. But it is an ingenious
use of some of society's little ways for
the purposes of much larger public.
1t is, in a way, a new method of put
ting into the reach of almost every
body some of the society's most allur.
ing attributes
You don't ask for the hostess at the
door. You don't ask for anybody, in
fact, but just push aside the screen and
walk into the barroom.
It's like some other bars in the
neighborhood of Broadway in being
provided with chairs and tables for the
use OF the feminine visitors, who occu-
by them at a discreet distance from
the long counter. In most particulars
the long counter. In most particulars
1t is like the others about it. But if
has been in its place longer than the
present standards of spickness allow.
The hostess is not there One of
her lieutenant tands behind the bar
and the negro waters occasionally an.
pear from the upper rooms with orders
Tor refreshments for the guests there.
The sound of soft music, much as
one hears when the door opens at 5
O'Clock tea, falls on the ear from these
same upper regions. Then there is
from time to time the sound of soft
laughter. 1t is always soft, too, for if ir
shows tendency to boisterousness the
hostess gives significant look to one
of her black attendants, and the cause
of the too noisy outbreak is repri-
manded.
After one such disciplinary episode
the laughers generally keep quiet. Ii
there is need of a second reminder
they go down the narrow steps ano
out of the little door.
The scene of this new social experh
ment is an old barroom not far from
Broadway, in what it is customary to
call, with little regard for anatomical
exactness, the heart of the tenderloin.
There has been nothing done to bright
en- up the looks of the dingy old rooms.
which have echoed the sound of at
least one pistol shot that ended in a
noted murder
Only few imitation palms stand
about the rooms TO contribute an air
of gayety. All these attempts at deco
ration are confined to the roomy OLD
saloon downstairs. In the upper part
OF the house it is the radiating person
atty of the hostess that adds glamor
to the two small rooms and makes un-
necessary any other adornment.
When the sound of soft music and
soft laughter has allured the stranger
to the upper story, he will enter first
a plainly furnished room with a table
and three chairs standing in the CEN
ter OF square of carpet. This room
opens into another through wide
door. 1t is in the second apartment
that the hostess and her friends most
often sit.
There is the player of the soft music
on banjo as well as the equally black
virtuoso of the guitar, who drums the
bass for the popular airs that succeed
well known, to the obligato of subdued
voices. If it be Good-by. Little Girl,
Good-by, there is certain TO be the &C.
compartment of a feminine voice,
while Meet Me at st. Louis has nearly
as trong hold on the taste of the
patrons of the house.
as strong a hold on the taste of the
She sits at table not far away
from the two musicians, and
naturally is never alone. She is a
young woman, dark haired, plump in
figure and wearing on her peekaboo
shirtwaist a diamond sunburst of
greater magnitude than briliiancy. Her
features are regular and there are no
women in the room so good looking as
she.
Walk into the first room and take a
seat at a table. The colored waiter
who steps UP to take your order will
bring it, and probably within a minute
after he has served it win lean over
the table. He has recognized that you
are stranger.
"Wuldn't yer like to meet Mrs.
Smith," he asks politely. 'She's sit
ting there in the next room"
That the visitor is sitting in the first
room and little bit to one side &C.
counts for the fact that Mrs. Smith
has not seen him. If she had she
would have presented herself with as
much manner as if she were going 70
take out the stranger in figure of a
cottillon.
But tonight she is sitting with her
friends near the banjo and guitar, and
her usually eagle eye has not fallen On
the new arrival.
The negro repeats mis- question.
Whether or not the guest answers that
he is pining to make the acquaintance
of the lady, and the waiter goes to in
form her, and Mrs. Smith, only chat
elaine of the gin mill that New York
possesses, approaches her unknown