The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-12-03

Bohemian life in New York is in
! terestingly portrayed by an English
writer, who wildly describes th'
scenes in a Broadway cafe, wher'
the theatre crowds gather for theil
usual nightly and early morning en-
| joyment. If the visitor, he says
were to look into one of the bes
known, but not the most fashionable
cabarets an hour before the theatres
close he would find it practically de
serted, save for the performers, who
grouped around the piano, are try
ing over some numbers in the nights
or, rather, the mornings program
We say mornings" advisedly; fol
this part of the New York world new.
er seems to sleep. When the play is
over the cabarets fill up rapidly with
crowd that considers the theatre
merely an incident in the nights en-
joyment. 1t rushes across the street
to the next dissipation and disap-
pears behind the swing doors of the
supper room. Those doors suggest
mystery; for their panels are unglaz-
ed and in their swift clash to and
fro they permit no glimpse of what
is going on inside. The windows
too. are closely screened; why IT
would be hard to say, for there is
nothing to conceal. The audience,
outwardly at least, is decorOus.
Whatever there may be of Maena-
die revelry is supplied by the paid
professionals. But to such manifes-
tations they have to be worked up
by a gradual process.
The supper parties vary as much
in character as in appearance. Side
by side with the demimonde sits
burgher responsibility. At first
there is little excitement. Over the
place broOds a sense of a grim de-
termination to seize pleasure by the
wings and squeeze her, as AnacreCn
squeezed Cupid, into the wine glass.
If these banqueters were only spon-
taneous, if they would burst out into
song themselves, or if they would
rise and dance a giddy measure to
the upsetting tables, one might be-
lieve in them as sincere children OF
joy. But no, they sit at meat, per-
functorily applauding the music pro-
vided for their delight, busy with
their talk, in which, every other sec
ond, occurs the blessed word IDOL
lars Save for the music and GER
tain livelier overtone of cakle from a
group that suggests the lighter stage
it is no more inspiring than the
crowd in the Europe or the Monico
at midnight
Above all the babel of tongues
rises the wall of a violin. The play
er stands on a low platform, about
which hang Chinese lanterns, paper
| flowers and the national flag A
stolid young man pounds the piano
accompanying the fiddle, which now
drawls sentiment and now rushes al
rag-time speed. His rag-time effort
| arrests a preoceupied house, which
demands an encore. He gives it, and
steps down to join a group, by fan
the most interesting in the place, al
a side table.
At that table sit the singers
three men in evening dress and two
women waiting their turns. Mind
| full of what they have to do they
neither eat nor drink, but merely
play with something in a glass OF
trifle with fruit. Corners and goers
sit for a moment at the performers
table, chat for little and pass on
One of the women is of the conven
tional prima donna type, dark, Ital
| ianate and stout. The other is very
fair, bleached, fragile, restrained!
vicious, treacherous-looking; witha
unutterably bored, yet not without
| strange pathos in her eyes.
AS the violinist stepped down th'
| girl rose, without enthusiasm, anC
moved towards the platform. Sht
did not go up, but stood in one o
the gangways between the tables
Already the pianist had preluded TO
her, and in a dead, strained voic,
she began a popular ditty of th'
hour. She seemed to care only t,
shout down the babel around her
but at the same time she contrived t