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Show I ! Hg,gjE STORY" I DOINGS OF THE "SMART I SET" IN NEW YORK I NEW TORK, April 21. Dear M.irlct: "Rootz-'toot-tgot!" and "Tally-hc-ho-ho'" iind anything 'ia& that sounds like tho PTf-Kt horn of a fsur-ln-hand. Wc'ro off for tho season tlio coaching. I menu. ICnt has hung on so late not tlmt 1 Liamo It; couldn't help itself, I suppose-but suppose-but It lias stayed so lone that -wo haven't waited to pet ouL of It to begin four-ln-handlng It to Ardsley, Of course, private driving doesn't wale for nu actual "soa-rson." "soa-rson." but tho first trip of tho Pioneer vSriliy marks tho nnniinl advent of coaching. coach-ing. The Pioneer Is an odd Institution In New York swelldom. It Is a public , conveyance, run Just as regularly a3 a Fifth avonuo stage or a trolley car. It itiakcs dally round trlp3 between tho Holland Hol-land house, az Fifth avenuo luid Thirtieth Btrcct, autl tho clubhouse nt Ardsley-on-thc-Hudson. But tho point Is It 1? driven by swells. For $5 you can sit plumb up against Alfred Vanderbllt nil day long. Third: of that, oh, mighty army of snobs! And, oh, mighty army of improeslonablo ' pirls wlio nron't fortunato onough to ( know Alfred, noto tliat ho Is the richest VandTTirlillt under fO, and ho Is?, tho best looking V. under or over a half-century nge. And ho'a a dear. Right hero at tho start though, my dear 3Ii;ncl, all coaches slop everything pulls xip. I feel that James Knzcn Hyde Is coming Into this lottcr fco'.s In .every bit of conversation In society and 'out of It, I no my guess 13 a naio one. Then, too, writing- about spring coaching makes St , doubly suro that ho'll bo "of matters tonohed upon," so I'll toko the bull by tho horns and drag blm In not. that "bull "by the horns" Is exactly a four-ln-hnnd term. It's just this l'vo received so many lettoro asking- mo as an authority to sottlo onco and for all this contradictory, etorien on to whether Gnbrlollc Rcjone. the French actress, really danced on a table or not at Hydo's now world-famous ,'costumo ball at Sherry's In January, that Ihero's where 1 jjivo ray answer: Msulamo Rejano did not danco on a rlablo nt "Caleb" Hyde's ball. I wroto you In full abouL tho party, Mu-, Mu-, , rlel, and you ought to trust mo to tel! you If such a sensational thing as that happened hap-pened and tell you all and every bit about It. Hero's what did happen, though, and It has never been printed. It's what was doubtless tho basis for tho can-can on a tablo gossip. It was getting terribly late. Many peoplo had gono. A crowd Jiad gathered, around Rcjane In the sup-jior-room. I was ono of thoso on tho dgcs who discovered that 'way In somewhere some-where tho comedlonno was telling an an-ccdoto an-ccdoto of some sort. I have nn Idea It was naughty risque Is the accented word. I believe, but taken of a sudden, and cspoclally after supper, my ability to translato French doesn't koop up with my anxiety to understand It nor with Re-Jano'o Re-Jano'o rattling delivery, either. Any- way, tho story seemed to muke an awful I hit and a cry went up for an encore. She consented to recite a little- Parisian poem and wo on tho edges pleaded to hear and I Eeo.. t6o. I men camo me iniai siup ur, iu w aot, tho fatal bound up to the top of a little table. That served ns a platform to olevato tho Parisian enough thnt all could hear and seo gestures and facial cxpres-1 cxpres-1 slons. too. But there wasn't a step of a can-can on thnt table. It wouldn't have held tho buxom Gabrlello If sho had tried It. hut Just ns a matter of record, she didn't try, Ton trust your Ida Innorly, my dear Muriel; I'll keep you up on the way the trains whirl by In little old New York, right enough. 1 Now that Hint's oft my chest, I'll tell you about tho Pioneer. Ixuls Bolssevain drovo tho first day, Reggie P.Ives the second sec-ond ar.u Alfred Vandcrbllt the third. Then they mixed it up among themselves, but no one else drovo. Yon arc safe In counting count-ing on tho ribbons being held by hands In which flows blue blood or gold. Theoretically Theo-retically seats on tho coach can be en-gajjed en-gajjed alngly, and by any one, but really the wagon Is engaged by pnrllos, and hooked so far ahead !t Is hard to rubber in unless you are s. friend of ono of tho whips. Tlio schedule Li a start from tho jrcllraid house at 10 In the morning, lunch at tho Ardsley clubhouso and homo at half-past 5 or co. Much of tho trip Is along tho bank of tho Hudson1, divinely beautiful, ,-r.iid all of luncheon Is right on our splendid river. The clubhouse has a great sweeping porch, and lnblc3 arc set there. Unhluslringly I confess that I can tell you Intimately only about tho days that ' Alfred VandorblltF drives, because, my doar, he's tho best looking of the "gentleman "gentle-man whips." :uid I Invariably refuse to cooOh on other than his days. Ills manner man-ner Is right funny, you know, Alfred Is tho "ellcntcst'' boy In tho world, and unless un-less chums of his and only chums aro aboard ho won't speak. Ho sits with his lips ac firmly set a.s a well-trained "tiger," and only opens them when civility civil-ity demands a response to somo fomalo pas6onger. A funny thing Is his action when he gets up to Ardsley. Away ho oneaks, oven If the passengers arc of his set, and nothing Is seen of him till "all-nboard" "all-nboard" tlrao. Nowadays that's natural, ns ho and his wifo havo taken Ardsley Towors, a beautiful Hudson river estate, for the season. They had It last year, too. So now. except when ho hires the coach from himself for hlinsolf, and takes his own party up, he runs homo to lunch 1 In tho "worklngman's dinner hour." An other funny thing nnd real cute, wo girls think Is his devotion to his wife, which goes even to tho extreme that when she Is of tho coaching party oho always hns the seat of honor, right up on Iho box by liubby. I Hyde, the revevrse of murder which "will out." will butt Into ovory chat or letter, iso Into this coaching matter ho gets be-'cauno be-'cauno ho is out of It. All that means that Tamos Hazon Hyde used to divide driving days with Alfred Vanderhllt and Reggie i JUmcm. Rut now, on top of all this 1 Uqultabl') fuss, ho has given up tho rclti3. U'm sano enough not to havo asked him why. Anyway, it Isn't that he'a exactly hiding from tho public finr.e. I aaw him make lilmself Just no consplcuoun at tho Theater tho other evening as he possibly could. He sat in a sky-high box with Jrrs. George Gould and Mr. "OIllo" Belmont Bel-mont who used to b? Mrs. W. E. Vandcrbllt. Vandcr-bllt. you know, and is tho Duchees of Marlborough's mother, Edith Gould was carrying horsilf charmingly, aa sho always al-ways does, and so was Alva Belmont. But "Caleb" Hyde sat with his back to tho stazo through the whole show, leaning against the nrch and facing tho audience Hquarely. Ho was giving his attention, though every bit of It to Mrs. Gould, laterally, ho wan pouring attontlon on her. I have no doubt he was talking In ' French. Ho does to any ono who will lot him. ife la "French nutty." Ho makes tip to look llko a "Frenchor" to begin with a maJ Persian on tho Hth, of July and tho othfcr evening he had on ono of his favorlto soft nhlrts with his evening clothes. Nothing English or American Is i worth considering. As the play happened i 1 to be tho great Mollero classic, "Lo ' Misanthrope," I was at firat surprised at his Insult to France. Then I woko up. "Why, you see. tho Idea was that though -the drama had never been acted In Eng- fllsh bofore, the thoroughly French Hyde I was perfectly familiar with It, and, at that, too n:d lo It ns acted at the Oom-edle Oom-edle Francalc to notice mere Americans plaing It. Mrs. Georgo Gould has hod 1ier hous-r at 57 Fifth avenue, onon for two weeks, which Isn't usual for her at this time of year, but' sho nnd. her husband worn down at Georgian Court long enough to give a dinner for Arnold Daly. How's that for a new link "binding society and the stage?" Rut, "Interrupting myself.'' my-self.'' for .something ronlly remarkable, note that Daly didn't rubber tlm fact Into tho newspapers; Indeed, It's "Insldo Information" Infor-mation" and from tho otlur end I'm giving you. Daly used to bo nn office boy for Charles Frohman before ho went Into acting. Only a month or so ago ho dined with Mrs. Astor at her granrMaughter Collier's house, and now ho "puts up" at Georgian Court! Well, well! (I'm sure you don't mind my remarking, "well! well!") Dnly was seized with a sudden and mystorlous attack of "nervous pros-.tratlon" pros-.tratlon" a fortnight ago. nnd ho had to retire from tho cast of the play In which ho Is starring. Ho wont down to Iakewood "to rest." I hear that a cake-walk was nn incldont Jn tho Court dinner. I supposo after a season In the exalted literary atmosphero of Bernard Shaw a cake-walk is -restful. Alas, how am I to know? It was as Mrs: Clnrenco Mnckay was taking her seat In a box at the first night of the Hippodrome. Sho looked over the, tremendous auditorium, with its stage tho i-lzo" of a great ballroom, and rows upon rows of seaw facing IL "If 'Caleb" Hydo ever gives another ball." sho said, "this would bo the Ideal place for it. The stago would bo fine for dancing, and then ho eould sell all thoso seats at auction prices and don&lo the money to a fund for tho bonelll of life Insurance presidents." f 4 But to got back to coaching (fcmmblc on to the band wagon) nil of It Isn't con-llned con-llned to tho Pioneer, by any means, or to the male sex. There's a Ladles' Four-ln-hand Driving club that's mighty swagger. I was saving my flgiiro by Jogging up and ' down on my saddle horse In Central park tho other morning when 1 saw the club'u coach turning In to sight. Who was drlv-' Ing, my dear, but Gladys Vnnderbllt. with Cornelia Harrimnn on the box beside her. Cornelia Is E, H. Harrlman's daughter, daugh-ter, you know, and is Gladys Vnnderbilt's "other self" of late. Gladys seems to. havo ' Inherited from her brother" the art of guiding four horses. She looked quite, as smart ns Alfred In his favorlto attitude, atti-tude, and not nearly so checkered in costume. cos-tume. Thoy took me by surprise-In the park. 1 had no warning, as It Isn't etiquette eti-quette to loot the horn within, the park limits, you must know. Norma Munro used lo be the most conspicuous con-spicuous fenialo whip in New York. Norma Nor-ma Is the lailor-mndo maid who camo Into a third of her father's nine millions mil-lions when she was a girl, and who has made om Uy in everything, from backing a ounesque show to running a "high V,rt roftCTzlno. Papa mado his pile In I-amlly Story Papers, but daughter used a lot of It In exploiting Impressionistic art. not to mention Impressionistic literature. litera-ture. Norma's under 25 still, but it Is nlready "years ago" that she was the patron saint of dare-devils behind four horses. Sho w.ih thrown finallv. and a lot smashed up. But sho got mended In time, then. though, four-ln-hand wasn't dangerous enough, and sho becamo -a chnuffour-oss-eress." Sho was second only to Frank Crokcr in dofylng fate and cable cars In Iter automobile, and now that Richard Crokor'a son Is dead from his darc-devlltry. Norma mands alone. Her favorlto frivol fs to get tho machine going at full tilt and then tako both her hands to put her hat on straight, and generally gen-erally mildly make her tolleL T remember when Norma Munro first ro"0111"?. coming along In Cousin l ml a motor and finding her party stuck across tho car tracks on Third avei;u The cars In both directions were blocked, rsorrna and tho two men with her Max Strnkosh and an Italian Marciuls-wcro y.der the automobile poking at the mechanism. mech-anism. Mrs. "Bob" Oaborn, with her uminl ropes upon ropes of pearls strung aoout nor. sat serenely In the machine, and loklng more liored than any ono I evr 3?.w. 1 asked her If it was .13 bad as she looked. "The worst Js ovfr," she said. "Wo camo to a fetop with such a Jolt that 1 thought I'd been thrown out. I hated to lock and see. When I ouened mv eyes there was Max hanging onto a lamppost nnd blandly Explaining that ho 'Just wanted a light 'for my cigarette.' " Thomas W. Hitchcock's sons aro among the four-ln-hand drivers of swelldom. They Thomas W.. Jr . and Center are about everything elso that swells "brought up by hand" are trained to be polo and nil that. Tho father, It seems. Insisted that his sons should' ho "brought up as gentlemen." which ho translated as meaning they should never work. No trade nor business was taught them and I supposo if llttlo Center (v.Micn ho was "llltlo Center") played with blocks he was stopped if ho Indicated too lively an Interest, for far he might develop a tasto for brick-laying. Then, too. think of. llttlo Thomas arrested from too animated an Indulgcnca In mud-plo making. lC3t ho become ambitious to follow, In later life, tho ancient and honorable profession of tho baker. Those munt have been watchful watch-ful dnys for father Hitchcock. But he successfully forestallod any youthful energy en-ergy In usefulness, so now neither son can do anything vulgar enough to bo profitable. But they're splendid whips, tho beat, of polo players and admlrablo boats and the last Is not so easy In theso days of Indigestion and Ilvora on strike. Tho father Hitchcock takes pride In calling himself n iwlf-mndo man. That would ecem a strango attitude, along with tho other, but th.-it It is really a Joke, and tho wily old ohap realizes It. His way of referring to his 11 vo millions or so Is to tay that any ono can make It. "Why T started with only a quarter of a million." ho says, "a sclf-mado man, ye's, sir. self-made." Now, yon needn't accuso mo of saying he leller was from May Van Alon. I don't. I'll Just put It that "nn" American girl abroad wroto to me tho other day asking If a certain popular song of the flour was " 'Caleb' Ilydo's own solo." Of course, tho blonde granddaughter of Mrs. Astor did suggest something vcrv much of that sort aimed in another direction when alio wound up a Newport party in tho wee hours singing her very own version ver-sion of "l'vo Got a Feelin1 for You." It is hard to nay whether It was moro cruel to May Van Alen or Mrs. Ogden Goslet, who had had troublo enough at the Uino with all the Jewels sho paid had been stolen and then discovered "wore in my safe all tho time"; but It got about that May Van Alen adapted the word; "I've got a diamond-stealing fooling for you." But that doesn't prove In the least that she Is tno girl In our sot now abroad who ".nnccently" wroto to me. at the height c.f1;d0"Jarn'-a w- Alexander fracas. Was that song really written for 'Caleb ' wnero the words wind up, 'Alexander don t you love your baby no moro" " lour loving, mA Ixn-rrly. |