The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-20
GOTHAM GOSSIP
(Ry Francis Phillips. Copyright 1910. by the National News Service. N. Y.)

by the National News SerV1ce. IN. Y.) New York, Oct. 20--The discovery that J. Pierpont Morgan, the Nestor I of American finance had been backing | fashionable Fifth Avenue milliner | who failed recently because his socie- 1 ty clients neglected to pay their bills, has led to much good natured chaffing and bantering of the multi-millionaire who holds the purse strings of Wall street in his finger tips. How and in what manner the financier came to be interested in the millinery shop no one seems to know outside of those directly in the secret and they of course won't talk about it. For a number of years the shop enjoyed the patronage of the smartest matrons in town and was seemingly sailing along on the crest of a wave Of prosperity when suddenly the bottom dropped from under. An inventory of it's deb-
 tors disclosed the names of many of
 the best known women of society, with
 a dozen or more of the prominent fa-
 vorites of the stage.
 The revelation that the King of
 American Finance had furnished some
 of the concerns capital proved big
 surprise to those in the financial dis
 trict, who are familiar with his pen-
 chant for picking out "sure things.
 They are wondering how so astute and
 experienced master as Morgan came
 to be lured into an enterprise so far
 removed from the thrills of finance,
 especially one so prosiac and tickle
 as millinery. In susceptibility to err
 ratio fluctuations, the business of sup
 plying head ornaments for the gentle
 sex, Wall street says has the stock
 game beaten a thousand ways.
 Some of those in the street, who af-
 feet to know say that MT. Morgan, in
 fo nf al ha enemies
 of him, has soft spot in his heart
 for those who are struggling to get
 to the front and that he has helped
 out hundreds of business people in
 the same way. While in the majority
 of cases he profted by these deals,
 there have been a number of in-
 stances in which he has lost as in
 this case. Efforts to get him to talk
 of his experience as the packer of
 the millinery shop have been unavail-
 ing.
 Public smoking by women in the fashionable hotels and restaurants of the city is again occupying the atten- tion of the city authorities. There has been a noticeable increase in this practice among women of the better set ever since the Ritz Carlton man. agement set aside one of it's public tea rooms for those who like the weed" Every afternoon from three o'clock until six this room is- filled with fashionably dressed women who between sips of the Chinese-Indian vintage puff their gold and cork tip- ped cigarettes in evident enjoyment. | Protests to the management against the practice have been of no avail, The hotel is run by wealthy syndt- | cate operating establishments under the same name in most of the Euro pean capitals, where cigarette smoking l by women in public is looked upon as eminently proper. American wom- | en who patronize these hotels while abroad smoke as freely as do the Eu- ropean women, according to the Ritz Carlton management The lact that they want to do it here also, the hotel people say is evident by the number | who are taking advantage of the priv ilege daily in their New York estab- 1ishment.
 Encouraged by the favor which has marked the innovation of the Ritz- Carlton, other hotels and restaurants in the city have recently removed the traditional ban from women smoking | and now allow their patrons to smoke as long and as often as they want to. Once a rare sight to see woman place Heeding the protests of a large element in the city, who believe the practice inimical to public morals and want it stopped, the Board of AL dermen has asked the Corporation Counsel to determine their authority to pass an ordinance making it ille- gal. Three years ago the Board pass ed such a law but Mayor Mcclellan vetoed it. claiming it was uncOnstitu- tional. Now the city fathers want to have a, legal opinion upon this point before proceeding to re-enact the orr dinance.
 New Yorh's art colony is greatly interested in the achievement of Fred erick Stahr, a slightly built young man, who in single week completed a symbolical picture of Good Govern at the hands of a Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This apportioned off at the rate of 1000 year for. three years will be used to defray his expenses for a trip to Rome, where he is to study the mural painting of the Worlds famous artists on exhibition there. Before his painting Stahr was un- heard of. He belongs to a poor fam fly living on Staten island in the out skirts of the city and has been help ing to support his mother and sister, working as a sign painter. A week before the contest closed, he learned of it and decided to enter. For seven days he worked on his conception of Good Government" with little rest. His mother and sister brought his meals to him in his little studio in an out of the way street and from early morning until late into the night he toiled on. Within an hour of the time fixed for the end of the contest he added the last touch to his work. Packing it up he hurried to the Acad- emy of Design, with it tucked under his arm. Nine other paintings had been submitted by young artists more or less known The committee unan- mously decided that his was best and awarded him the three years trip to he Eternal City. When the announce- nent of the committee was made the young man was stunned with sur prise and pleasure over his victory. i. He will start on his long journey next month.
 Those women who find exhileration n attending the trial of divorce ac- ions in the local courts must in fu- :. ure find some other form of recrea- I ;on Cinoa fha cO1IrfS racurnAd tha '