Los Angeles herald., 1905-02-26
PASSING OF A FAIR MAGICIAN


/ cannot charge society OF the pres
ent day with an unkindlier piece of
iconoclastic despoliation than its do
ing away with the magic of the fan.
Once in a while, in her own drawing
room, an elderly woman may be seen
moving her fan in a manner reminis-
cent of the days when it was veri-
table lexicon of inaudible conversa-
ton and love. But nowhere else can
the old-time magic be seen or felt,
except here and there in the salons
and opera houses of Paris, Vienna, the
City of Mexico, Lisbon, Seville and
Madrid; and even in these foreign
places. where the golden calf is not so
plentiful nor so prodigious as in the
United States, the exceptions are rare;
while in our own country the use of
the fan other than to engender cool
waves has nearly passed away. Only
in Mexico is it's use kept up on the
same bewitching and blandishing
scale which prevailed in Spanish and
Cuban cities half century and more
timore, Richmond, Washington, New
Orleans, Cincinnati and st. Louis So
ciety. Fashions and furbelows, floral
and other decorations, bowls of punch
and other refreshments, toques and
gowns, diamonds and laces, and gossip
over the latest divorces and trade col
lapses almost entirely engross every
thing and keep the fair sorceress out
of business.
1t was less than forty years since the
fan was a scepter in Washington,
New Orleans and San Francisco, and
elsewhere; and especially at Sara
toga, Newport, Del Monte and White
SULPHUR Springs. 1t commanded and
was obeyed. In the hands of pret-
ty woman, married or single, who knew
it's ineffable magic, the fan was an
oracle, hope, an advice, a fete, a
promise, refusal, a threat, a punish
ment and a pardon. In the hands Of
a truly skillful woman the fan praises
and blames; it encourages, it per-
suades, it demands; it can incite
smiles, laughter, irony, grief; and,
grave as it may seem, despair and
death; and grace and joy and fasci-
nation as we'll. 1t is different from any
other fancy or any other weapon, and
even If it seldom kills 1t often wounds.
And it is nearly as dangerous shut
up as open. It's single movement may
mean peace or war, tenderness or
scorn; its resources are perfidy and
maliciousness, constancy and good.
At the opera houses in the City of
Mexico, at Barcelona and Madrid it
speaks in a thousand tongues; and at
the bull fights at Seville and Cordova,
at Lisbon and Oporto, it keeps up a
brilliant and incessant conversation. 1t
is employed to show pretty hands or
to caress ones half-exposed bosom or
neck. 1t knows how to attract to its
meaning even the eyes of stupid men,
even if they do not know how to ap-
of caresses and quarrels. 1t can
break up splendid families and destroy
distinguished personages. 1t can sing
a song or hymn, and is equal to many
emergencies. Not all the disquisitions
heard at women's clubs, not all the
ornamental preaching in our high class
pulpits, nor the cleverest devices of
our basket ball seminaries. nor even
the infatuating elixirs of joy or of
Punishment of pain and distress prom
ised to the devotees of Christian Sci
ence can accomplish SO much as the
use Of the fan in the jeweled or un-
jeweled hand of the genii Of the old
regime.
1 remember standing near the office
desk of the old Hotel del Monte once
during the gay season few years ago,
late at night, when a youth came run
ming up to Mr.. Smell. the manager,
and handed him a fan, exclaiming,
| "SOme lady has lost her fan" OH no.