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Show 1 f " THE INSIDE STORY " J '? DOINGS OF THE "SMART I I i SET" IN NEW YORK f -rw YORK. APr11 7 Denr Muriel: .Ws a eW fad ln lown' my dcar' nnd ! 0 i get to other matters I must "put f W!nest." R"s simply "Meet mo at the ' JDi Tou know, as I think l'vo rc- ' ked to you before. Lent Is supposed j f Ui. a .rend time In New York society. a inaitcr i .'act it's like August- i folk are supposed to be out of town ,33hey aJI nod: Into "llttlo old New j, 16 . ln great numbers, freo from social ' Iiralnis bis parties, necessary calls, h OPira and aU t"11-1"111 simply cut ' , We're all here; most of us, as you ' dht "unofflcJally," and having; tho : JZ?Mf our Uvea. But to get back to the j ;Ztet m0 at tho flro" craze. It's ono of ! stuntu that has gotten about ln tho . 1 et no ono knows how or from ' 'tinM-and It Is understood by all of us ' fn only us. Tho Idea's this, you sec. ! THri?. is perfectly bully now-tho early vhb 'freshness and flunshlno make tho ' Irtt o' us feel 18. But tho game Is not Zwirlvo'ln our own carriages, but to hlro r'JirSms and say we're going shopping-' shopping-' "rrSuMl eeo tho ' why" of that part later.) ' 1?mt we'ro off. wo drlvo about tho Twen-' Twen-' & to Fortieth streets district, more or V utA neai to Fifth avenue, and nil in with dishw of shopping, or any old thing, till h hear a Are engine bell. Then tho or- ro raco like sin after a llro engine I -jV-sre's the fun of going at a good pace, exhilaration of pursuit, the excitement i of crowds and bustle, and tho cbanco of ' . ihrill of horror. Rat the real point Is this. At the flro ' fjj runs into half tho chaps and girls V III knows, gathered about in hansoms, l tzrii and automobiles, llko at polo. The l S7? usuallv doesn't amount to anything. ' tut ono has "'accidentally" run across I ,,si ths bunch one wanted to soo. so thoro ; toy aro Tho Joy of iho Ienton season I At midsummer In town lu that ono Is turdencd with no ougagementd and uan iitl5fy any Huddon far.cy. So many's tho l 'meet mo at the flro" Illngs that have turned Into tho Jolllet sort of dinners ' csully at the Casino ln Central park, or. I t.Clarcmont under tho shadow of Grant's 1 uab on tho bank of tho Hudson. And !1 nl5" every tlmo a motor spin up toward jV-ycy rounded out a real thing sort of timg Perhaps you flee now why wo rfTr public cabs "by tho hour for shop-tW shop-tW Instead of our own broughams, the fusing of which would so deflnatcly tadlcaie our Intention of letting the meot-Iit meot-Iit extend to dlnnor and an auto spin. It la always so much moro effoctlvc not i to r womanly to let things drlfi; of courM, with a llrm though invlslblo hand tt the helm that sees thoy "drift" In e.-i e.-i icllv the Intended direction, i Alfred Vanderbllt was tho star at a ' "xtet me at tho llro" tho other day a S day he'll remember. I venture to say, . though not necessarily becauso of said i coDflasratlon Nothing looked right ox-! ox-! ct?t tho splendidly sunshiny day when cue of tho girls and I took a hansom at (' Kerry's "by tho hour for shopping." We'd passed tho Waldorf In our drive ; down Fifth avenue, when (suddenly wu fcMPl the lire engine bells, and gavo tho order "to chase" In a Hush of fevered '. fen. The cabman had to all but ride up cn tho sidewalk of tho avomio to let the '. fl-wu engine, and right behind It, tho t hook-and-ladder wagon, 3wlzz past us. ay7T saw Caroline Ducr--.S?ir onf ?Iackay's cousin, you know MliSiHnlIo?.klSver shoWer as if to ti hc.thr o rctraco her steps safe fn,n tln3c Cftrno at It was n? X UD to drtvo down. I !n tin Was ,n thc Hoffman houso and iiw Vr JL K?V Zc Fot a tllrin when wo hnn rb ,h,lbJB hotel tllat lh0 '-'"Sines ''"V'1 U,P before, m three minutes a crowd .tended a block up Broadway had gathered, and tho pollco had already Inra?uV llncs' R'eht hero I must, Hnmnipil,t ,,f lL over started, and no nnm f an Squarcrleht ln front, t0, ,thlnk of u ot th iiouso from yhlch rich old Adrian Iselln was burled a rJe was Alfred Vandorbllt, skating Ills blt motor down at a ripping pace. Tho appearance of his beautiful (not to mention men-tion Mammon-csque) self caused a nutter. Immediately followed by tho thud that the realization of his mnrrlcd state always causes in our hoarts. Tho excitement of chasing to that flro must havo stirred up Alfred s blood for It was thnt samo day he was arrested, further up town, for his now moro or lca famous speeding of that Kolf-samo automobile. It was that samo evening at tho St Regis Re-gis at dlnnor a direct result of "meot mo at the fire," by tho way Wo wero getting get-ting rather Ured of ono nnothor after six hours togethor, and were all wishing somothlng would happen to lift tho golden doom, when In walked Mrs. Harry Payno Whitney (Alfred Vandorbllt's sister, you know) simply a-glJttcr with dlamonds-a really unusual display for her. "Oh. look," bllnklngly burst forth ono of tho chaps whom wo had all given up for sleeping hours boforo, "look! Gortrudo Whitney's 'broken out In a rash of diamonds!" dia-monds!" Havo you ever thought how you'd man-ago man-ago a cuchro party of 00 pcraons7 Tho answer, of course, Is no; nor did I ever troublo' myself with tho thought- But when I Haw pooplo pour ln to a "hand at cards" to. tho number of m0 I couldn t help wondering how they'd bo handled; and really tho management of them wa3 so romarkablo I'm going to wiito It to you. Dry as a mine superintendent's report, re-port, you may find It. and If vou do I'll tip you off right hero that It'll keep on till you find thrco dots by way of Indicating Indi-cating a break In thought I can't seo you as you read, but I hope you're not avoiding avoid-ing boredom by a giddy jump to the thrco dots. Mrs. Arthur Elliott Fish is ono of tho most charitable women ln New York, though sho hasn't tho wealth to Indulge her goodness as vastly and as conspicuously conspicu-ously as Helen Gould and Mrs. Ryan, for Instance. From soclot 's well-glided viewpoint view-point sho is almcet poor, but her Incessant Inces-sant energy has "built up her homo for crippled children Into a flourishing and most eflldant charily. Sho raises much of tho necessary cash by card parties, big and small. Tho one I'm going to tell you about was hold at tho Waldorf-Astoria, the othor oven In? and Mrs. Fish told mo between SCO and S00 tickets were sold. Sho had divided them Into twentj "countries" that Is tho occasion was really llko twenty affairs of forty persons each. Ono or two assistant women took over each "country," and guaranteed to sell all tho forty tickets. The map of these numerous numer-ous natlonB extended over tho Astor gallery, gal-lery, tho east room and tho Myrtlo room, which nro on the second Moor of tho Waldorf-Astoria. Tho hallways wcro. I sup pose, rivcro of navigation, and tho big en-tronco en-tronco foyer lho harbor to Fish-land. Russia, I must pause to rcmnrk, wim a hit notl No woman would tako It's tickets, tick-ets, and Mra. Fish was face to face with licking her way through her Atlas to find another land, when a charming coul, charitable to tho cripples and to Russia allko, bought tho wholo section horsolf giving away Instoad of soiling tho tlckots. These patronesses, "patron-tjalntesscs," as you might call 'em of tho several countries coun-tries managed tho twenty cuchro parties that mado Mrs. Fish's a great empire of cards. Each was queen ln her own land, and each had a court of pretty maidens to keep tally. Ono hundred and forty-six prlzcu had been donated and ybu can Imagine tho scramble If Mrs Fish hadn't devised the complotest of schemes. At tho end. a large-voiced man took charge, mounting a platform and calling from tho largest posslblo number of points down- till ho struck tho highest score. Thrco had sixty-two, so up thoso threo went nnd had to draw from tdlps of paper, on which wero written ono. two, three, to thus sot-llo sot-llo precedence ln choosing tho prizes. So, you see, ono sixty-two became number one, tho second sixty-two was two, thc third was throe. That system was repeated re-peated with the flvo slxty-onos. starting with number four. These degrees woro punched Into tho tally cards, and then the winners formed In llnrv utn atmnt in borers on pay-day. Wo wero not "even unto tho third and fourth generation" but oven unto the ono hundred and forty-sixth forty-sixth your Ida being "lot 85 " Tho wife of the large-voiced man stood at tho door of a roped-orf room whero tho prizes wero Ret out llko wedding presents Ono punched prlzc-snatcher was ullowcd In at a time and If it hadn't been for fear of offending charitablo ladles I'd havo hid my tally In a crack In tho floor and mosicd rather than stand In line almost an hour to get a fan, dono ln four colors and solectcd, I have no doubt, bv a dowagor filled with more good Intentions than good taste. Just to round out my deal In figures fig-ures I'll glvo you the sum If number clghty-llvo had to wait ffty-threo minutes for her turn to choose, how long did number num-ber one hundred and forty-six have to stand In lino? My guess Js that she's waiting still but then. I mako no prc-tenso prc-tenso of being a clever mathematician. I'll confess I used that merry jest bo-Xore bo-Xore to tho mnn in front of, mo in line. Ho offered to tako my tally as well as his own to relieve me of the boro of standing stand-ing In line, all of which was sweet and darling of him, but struck mo as being hardly "according to Iloyle." I told him so, and wanted to tell him If he desired to bo really obliging ho could simply face about so 1 could gaze into his splendid eyes But as ho had boon presented to mo only fifteen minutes before something told mo tho expression of such a wish wouldn't bo according to well, let's say (as tho song has It) Beatrlco Bare-facts, tho social referee But double widowhood begets resourcefulness or perhaps, is tho result of it so I reasoned If I kept up a continual chatter ho would havo to stay turned 'round and I could gazo Into thoso opulant optics and let my words wander as they would It was under thoso circumstances, cir-cumstances, under that hypnotic spell, thai I gave birth to my well-meaning. If not dazzling mathematical Jest. And that gavo him his fatal cue. , u "Did you ever hear." he asked and with such Innocenco In thoso great, blue eyes that I foresaw naught' of the boy and tho rabbit? Ho was shaking tho llttlo beast by the ears and threateningly demanding de-manding 'Two and two two and two-how two-how much? How much, ou little devil? Then ho threw the silent beast on the ground declaring, 'It's all a He. they say rabbits are the greatest multipliers In the world and this fellow can't even add up two and two1' " No I looked no moro into tho deep bluo eyes; tho maiden modesty of -a two-ply widow forbade me, o Poor Natalio Collins! I ouppono vou've heard. For more than a few years "Natalio "Nata-lio Schcnk was looked upon as thc belle of Now York, of about as near to "the" bello as a great city like this could settle on. Sho had everything like popularity, wit, beauty, social position and thc attention at-tention of men, I mean. Her famllv wasn't of tho richest but always appeared well-to-do. Natalie could havo married any man in New York, and so wo wcro more than a llttlo surprised a year ago when tho report of her sudden wedlock, 'way off In southern California, reached us, especially es-pecially as tho man was unknown to our world. C. Glon C0III113 cnlled himself Captain Cap-tain In some British rcglment-though It camo out ho was only a Lloutenant. Not that that was no terrible, but many of tho things exposed were. I'm not going to rako thorn up now. even to you, but after a few months of miserable matrimony tho formerly petted and feted Natalie left him, crawled away quietly to Franco with her mother, to thcro become a mothr herself her-self And now It appears thc poor girl's troubles nro multiplied by financial worrv. Sho Ih coming back to her own cltv hero where sho onco ruled as belle of New York to go Into trado to support thc child of her unhappy union Mrs. Collins Is debating whether to be- either field sho will find many women reduced re-duced from social effulgence like herself. Such was tho case with Mrs. Robert Os-born. Os-born. a belle at Long Branch when that resort rivaled Newport as a fashionable watering place Then sho was Joscfa Nollson. nnd when sho married "Bob" Os-born Os-born her social position was. If possible, mado oven Urmcr. But misfortune overtook over-took them, nnd matrimonial misunderstanding, misunder-standing, too, and "Dody" Osborn wont to work to support her llttlo daughter Audrov. At tho start Norma Munro and Fred Gebhnrd helped her ln financing her venture, with money of their own and their friends; and Julie Opp assisted by. engaging her to design her slago dresBes and advertising the fact widely. Mrs. Osborn Os-born has succeeded so that she may falrlv bo called a rich woman nnd her little homo ln Stuyvcsant square, at a tlmo sadly neglected, has been renovated into moro glittering and snobbish sense. Lady Duff Gordon's is an excellent cx-amplo cx-amplo of a social career turned Into one of money-making. Sbe recently got sensational sen-sational advertising by designing "emotional "emo-tional gowns" for stago use by Mrs James Brown Potior But In London they havo a Duchess as runner of a tcashop explanation: expla-nation: runner ln the sense of ono who runs manages not a Duchess who stands ln ndjacent streets and pleads with passers-by to patronize her business. Mrs. Harry B Smith, wife of one of our richest rich-est dramatists, opened a tearoom here. As her husband is famously prodigal ln his r.pcndlngs for old play-bills raro editions and that sort of thing. 11 seems odd that tho wlfo of such an Income should havo to trouble about money. She has lately turned dramatist herself, writing In partnership part-nership with the wife M a Journalist connected con-nected with stago affairs, Mrs. Vanco Thompson. Good-bye, dear I wish you were here to go on a "meet me nt tho fire" Junket. It's rather hard having you "onlv In the spirit " Husbands are tho only things good to havo that .way. Your loving IDA INNERLY. |
