The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-31
GOTHAM GOSSIP

GUlHAM GUSSlP (Ry Francis Phillips, Copyright 1910. 1 by the National News Service. N. Y.)
 New York, March 31-By all ac- | counts, Andrew Carnegies fondness
 for giving away his surplus millions | in the establishment of public libraries 1 the purchase of church organs the
 promotion of science and the propa- ! ganda of peace, has not dulled his sense of business acumen,. recent rev citations of his experience with the skyrocket flnanciers of the Carnegie Trust Co. notwithstanding. Through his representative, notice has been served upon the 1,200 music teachers, painters and savants of literature who occupy studios in Carnegie Hall that $100 a year each. With few excep- tions the tenants have registered a vigorous protest against the contem- plated boost in vain. Those who are unwilling to submit to the extra tax have been told that the order is not debatable and that if they don't like it they can vamoose. As studio in the building, which was erected some years ago as a sort of monument to the Iron Master at cost of several million dollars, is supposed to carry with it a certain prestige, compara- lively few feel that they can afford
 to, move. Hence a general disposition to accede to the raise under duress. The studios in the hall rent from $500 to s2000 each and are used by some 1 of the best known teachers of vocal and instrumental music in the city as writers and artists who have given 1 to the institution a Bohemian atmos- phere not to be found anywhere else l in the Metropolis. Since the an- | nouncement of the projected increase was made some of the tenants have | tried to figure up what it will mean | to the Laird of Slxibo Castle and | have reached various conclusions, some imputing to the owner of the | building a desire to make 20 per cent
 on his investment and others only 15. | The big hall in the building. which
 commands a rent of $40O an afternoon Or evening, is leased on an average of l four days a week during eight months of the year, and the lyceunl, a smallA | CT hall, about six nights a week for
 nine months. Tn addition to their rent troubles, the artists claim. they are preyed upon for gratitudes by various | employees of the establishment and
 are forced to pay for telephone conec- tion in their studios and ten cents | for every call they make outside of the building. Although they get from
 s to s10 an hour for their artistic la bors. the tenants submit that their lot i is now an unhappy one.
 Whenever you trek about town nowadays all you hear from every body you meet is the swan song of peace. Ever since. President Taft sug- gested that the United States and England put away their shooting irons and act as policemen for the rest of the civilized world, there seems to be- a widespread tendency to applaud the sentiment and help crystalize it into something definite and permanent It is really wonderful what a modify ing influence the idea of universal peace has eXerted on the community The fellow with the chronic grouch and the ever present chip on his shoul-
 der feels himself without an occupa-
 tion now, for no one is willing to
 Broadway restaurant is more polite
 and does not look as if he'd like to
 choke you to death because your tip is
 not as robust as his lust for change.
 Even the taXi-cab chauffeurS have
 become more circumspect and no long
 CT overwork the meter while you are
 absorbed in the sights of the city In
 the Domestic Relations Court the
 magistrates report fewer, complaints
 from injured soul mates, fewer black
 eyes, fewer bruised hearts and tales
 of love gone wrong. At a meeting held the other afternoon in the Press club,
 attended by the leading Journalists
 professional men and merchants of
 the city, it was decided that the op- pOrtunity was now ripe for a general understanding all around, and ar engagements were made to invite the l nations of the world to attend a peace congress here in 1913. The New York | Peace Society which regards the re- cent trend of things as exceptionally l propitious, plans a big dinner in April 1 to a number of distinguished foreign | apostles of peace now in this coun-
 try and has in preparation the or
 ganization of an international soci- l ety for the encouragement of inter-
 national hospitality between Gpromi-
 nent citizens in the different nations
 as a means of stimulating interest in ] peace. Other local civic organizations | have under way projects of Ike
 order and purpose which persuades l many optimists to believe that the | day of national disarmament is not as far off as it seemed to be recently. 1
 In deference to the request for an
 interpretation of the statutes made by ! some of Gotham's smart women dis
 ciples of the weed. the Secretary of | the Treasury this week decided that 1 incoming female tourists could bring | into port free of duty 500 cigarettes ] and 90 cigars. This places them on | the same plane with men and presup-
 poses that they may prefer cigars to
 cigarettes. The decision of the Sec 1 retary. including cigars in the list of | articles entitled to free entry when ] brought in as part of the baggage ! of an incoming woman passenger, has
 served to excite speculation as to how
 nany-if any at all-of the society
 women of the city have abjured the | cigarettes for the straight Havana. It 1 is only within the last few months | that any considerable number of them ! have acknowledged being addicted to
 smoking even cigarettes by publicly ! indulging their weakness in the Ritz
 Carlton and one or two other places | about the city. If they have taken | the advanced step and gone in for
 smoking cigars it has been kept studi- | ously secret. To whatever extent it | has been done. all of it has been be-
 hind closed doors. from which the in-
 truding gaze of the public has been
 excluded. However, if the new Har- em skirt becomes the vogue, cigar | smoking in public by some of the more adventurous of the women, who ! like to be considered smart, would 1.
 curr1rico Now York