River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1907-04-04
Carefully Hidden Studio in NeU York
Where Stanford White Entertained
Men of His Stripe in Ways That
RiUaLed Days of FabLed Eastern
Luxury.
Was House Within House Where
the Light of Day Never Was AL
lowed to Penetrate---Only by Sc
cret Passages Could Entrance Be
Gained.

, teal, modern New York. But as it
was when Stanford White was the pre-
siding genius there, layishing all the
brilliancy Of his perverted fancy on
nightly entertainments SO bizarre that
no roue was SO jaded that he did not
eagerly seek an invitation to attend,
it belonged to the days of tabled east
ern luxury and splendor, the days of
the Arabian Nights, with all their wiz
ardry of imprisoned genii, enchanted
palaces and young girls beautiful as
the dawn.
And the site for this lordly pleasure
house, this secret haunt where the
master might hold his visitor prisoner
for hours or days, this dream house of
art and abandon, of refinement and
revelry, was chosen, as if in deliberate
Joy in the contrast, in the heart of the
most respectable and commonplace
surroundings.
Il sat up in the bed and started to
scream" said Evelyn Thaw before the
court, as she told of her waking in the
room of the mirrors. Then | scream
ed and screamed and screamed, and
he came over and asked me to please
keep quiet. Then / began to scream
more than ever" All this between
Broadway and Sixth avenue, within
stones throw of the humdrum shop
ping district of Twenty-third street!
Commonplace Surroundings.
| One wall of the studio backs on the
Eden Musee, the delight of children
| and simple country visitor. The tu-
multi of Twenty-third street, with it's
indolent or hurrying shoppers and
their restless humors of the cheapjack
toys along the sidewalk, easily reaches
the ear. On the Twenty-fourth street
side the eye sees only an everyday
row of monotOnOus looking houses, no
uglier or shabbier than a hundred
rows exactly like them from which the
bright tide of fashion has drifted away
forever. If an artist wished to por
tray thoroughly commonplace
street, without a hint of romance or
a touch to fire the imagination, he
could find no better scene. And it was
just this setting of almost ostentatiOus
responsibility, of the staidest and least
inviting propriety, that Stanford
White chose to use as a curtain be-
hind which he could set his private
stage as he willed, could intoxicate
| himself with riot0us luxury of SEN
sual beauty and extravagant display
and teach their sorry parts to the pup
pets he introduced there without fear
of interruption or discovery. There
vice, decked in her bravest purple and
crimson, Knocked at the prim gray form
of virtues gray gown that sheltered
her and let her live. 1t was as if
dancing hall from Paris should be
found hidden among the elms in the
churchyard of some little New Eng
land village.
| Entrance to the Gilded Den.
Here is Evelyn Thaw's description
of her first visit to the place:
1--WE stopped at a dingy lodging
house and, as we passed inside, the
door opened. No one touched it, bat
! it opened of itself. We went through
| that door and along passage and up
| some steps, and then another door
opened in the same way. We went
| UP some more steps and when we
were half way up I stopped and asked
where we were going, and a voice
called down, but I could not see who
it was. Then another voice called, a
mans and we went on up the stairs
till we came into room magnifcently
| furnished with velvets and satins,
with all kinds of beautiful things
standing around and paintings on the
walls and interesting cabinets and
bronze and marble statuettes and
| shaded lights"
| There are three floors to the studio,
not including a kind of basement,
which was given over entirely to the
kitchens, pantries and servants quar-
tiers, and a peculiar feature of the
whole building is the fact that instead
OF one main staircase running straight
| up through the house, the different
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