Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-23
Would a Girl Cabby Seize
Upon Her "Fare?"
SHUTTERS UP ON 5TH AVENUE
How the "Undigested Ones" Carry
Off American Gold and Spurn
the Soil Of the United States.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

|
Special Correspondence Of The Star.
NEW YORK. November 90. 1907.
TT HE usheresses are with us, They
| pilot US TO our stalls at the Man
haitian Opera House. Harbingers of
universal comfort in theaters. these trig
damosels! They guide you graciously to
your place. They are neither patronizing,
naughty nor aloof. like some male ushers
| we know. They say to you. where you
stand bemazed In the theater's rear dark
ness. Coupon ease?" and it Is like the
assonance of little silvern bells. There is
an innate, maybe a practiced. concinnty
about them. Handing them your coupon.
you wonder how they have contrived to
preserve the yielding soft velvetness OF
their hands. Prettier than stage VIVIAN
dieres. all OF them-for sure enough VIVIAN
dieres are the SCARED, homely hays,
everybody knows. These girl ushers are
Of all types, all COMPREHENSIVE all spick-
and-span. gimpy, beamish, outstanding.
alert as falcons. amiable as anything you
can think of. Flirtatious? Tush. tush!
Must the obliaue view always be taken?
Not q bit flirtatious. then-or. If they are,
they are deliciously furtive about it. You
will observe. however. that the unpulchri-
tudinous spouse of the gay-dog-seenling
| elderly husband watches that contact of
| hands when he gives the spruce usher girl
the coupons All things considered. it is
presumable that the usheresses really are
not liked so much by the women as by
the men. Why? Why is a giraffe? Many
questions must be passed unanswered.
| Anyhow. there are to be more usheresses
here-a lot more of them. The acicular
Hammerstein. most foresighted of all
49, Ant -
begin it. This strange man is always
starting things-and finishing them, too.
Now the usheresses are to be copied. uni
form and all. Several other managers
have them The usher uns asn
it. They do not sulk nor glover Joyous
but never gushy. they appear to like their
work. OF how many male ushers can
that be said?
The oily vet sometimes acrid Oscar talks.
now, of putting girls at the box office
| window. Why not? Speaking broadly
impersonally and impartial.y. there are
box office males. in New York and else
where. who should be tentmen with cir
cuses: or forenlen in charge OF Hungarian
and Slavonic construction hands; or wild
men of Borneo. We refer to their man
ners. We have in mind their perennial
crouch. We advert to their forbiddins
ferocitv and their sometimes studied sui
lenness. We could mention, offhand,
many theater box offices where the faces
of yelasant-mannered girls framed In the
windows would be an enormous improve
ment and be of advantage to the manage
ments. Some box Office males never, by
any remote chance. deign to reply to any
reasonable question YOU submit to them
They are above "all that stuff Girls are
different That. we think. is not even
open to question. If YOU inquired or the
girl in box Office if seat Q III happened
to be behind a post. we doubt If she would
glare at you as If you were a drunken and
defiled cochroach. So that this strangely
brainy o. Hammerstein seems to be on
the right trail. A girl in the box ONCE
| window? Wen buy seats at once! For, at
least we shall not be snubbed ana
| squnched
Passing of the Foreignish.
Again the girl: Several Of the most re-
nowned restaurateurs in town are grave
ly speaking of replacing their French and
other foreignish walters with girls Amer
lean girls They discussed this at re-
cent meeting. They declared that the
hauteur of the French and other foreign
ish walters in dealing with customers was
| becoming intolerable. American male
walters. they say. are even more stiffneck,
| ed and independent" Why not girl
walters? The better the place the mora
| need for the girl. The girl waiter. for
| example would not curl her lip at you If
you ordered club sandwich and bottle
| Of mineral water; would not expect a dol.
lar pourboire atop of 60 cents worth OF
| served food: would not, in general. at
| tempt to assume the attitude of a prison
| warden toward a captive cutpurse.
Portals of Today.
They've girls already In many of the
best cigar stores in New York. Pretty,
chattery. but anything but fresh" girls;
just girly-girls who know and understand
| the happy medium between passing the
time of day with the sad dogs and per-
hitting the latter to become new" with
them. All the cigar stores employing
girls to wait on folks are doing we'll
| Humankind remains pretty much the
same. People do like to be civilly treated
Girls know how. If. they have a crouch
slowed away anywhere on their persons
thew don't let the world know about it.
Three women recently applied for
licenses as cab drivers. Their applica-
lions were not granted Despite the inva-
sion of women into the Jehu ranks in
| Paris df this isn't an 1rishisml 1t is not
likely that the Tenderloiners will be haul
ed about by girl cab drivers in New York
yet awhile. That were stretching it a bit
| too far for the American spirit toward
| women.
But the women advance hereabout. A
little while ago ! listened to a woman
lawyer pleading, in court. for the life of
an Armenian murderer. She was prettier
than any Portia I've ever seen. too. More
over. She was able. eloquent. logical, al
most convincting-ai nost. because her
Arme MAN is going to be electrocuted for
all her elouuence. But she was on the
job, she did well. and folks were sorry
she didn't win her case.
A Nightliner's Work.
Writing about Jehus a bit back yorder
| reminded me of something. The Tender
loin nightliners have sprung a new one.
You see, times are bad over here, and
| there has been great falling off in cab
riding Well, the nghtliners must have
| fares, must they not? Soit-nly. There
fore, they are now making fares. 1t is
| very easy. The nightlner grabs a-hold
| Of a soused but prosperous-looking chap.
| as the soused one passes by any old tim
| after midnight. and ncontnently chucks
| him into the vehicle. Then mounting his
| seat. the cabman drives the protesting
| fare" around to the nearest police sta
| ton, where he yanks him before the desk
| sergeant and stoutly affirms that he's
| been driving the fare" for four hours
| through the stews and purlieus ot~New
York, not to speak of the park, and that
| the fare is trying to blk him. the Jehu.
out of So. Incredible. you say, Not in the
| n,,t to ~,