Newspaper Page Text
1 < * l
V-^-V
+¥>r
<#^
A y?sV
*Tsi
<%¥
&*
Vol. XXII—No. 1097.
ATLANTA, GA., SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1897.
Price, $2 Per Year.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
Woman Will Continue to Carry Her
Pocketbook in Her Hand.
WHAT SOME PROMINENT WOMEN SAY ABOUT IT—NOT THE FAULT
OF FASHION. FOR SHE DON’T WANT POCKETS—IT IS
A TEMPTATION TO HIGHWAYHEN.
A
One of the most important of unsolved
problems is: “Why does a woman carry her
pockctboolt in her hand?”
Why she abuses her inoffensive husband
cr serves him a cold dinner on Monday or
discharges the cook three times a week are
matters not wholly beyond human ken, tout
the pocketbook question Is broader than It is
long, deeper than it is wide, and has but one
parallel in feminine mystery—the exact lo-
cation of a pocket in a woman’s dress. The
man who tries to find an answer to it will
do well to lirst master a few Chinese puz
zles. It is a question which appears to be
shallow, yet is infinitely deep. It is a ques
tion seemingly ridiculous, yet it baffles phi
losophers.
“Why does a woman carry her pocket-
book in her hand?” asks the curious man.
Foolish man! Why is the moon made of
green cheese? Why are there thirty-one
days in some months and in others only thir
ty? Why does a man carry a cane and wear
buttons on the back of a frock coat? These
are all questions in the same grab-bag with
.t of a woman’s pocketbook.
re is more in this interrogation ttoym 3. ,
• iv n. ."i"--!.- - .1 * -
ivtang Chang, and- it is constant!
trac \ the attention of the police. After
all, u 'may have vital importance. Theories
are unsatisfactory and cheap. Analysis and
investigation may reveal a fact or two.
There is a big list of sneaks and pickpock
ets at police headquarters that ought not to
be there. Opposite it. there is a bigger list
of complaints from women who ha.ve been
deprived of their pin money at one fell blow.
Why? Because women carry ‘their pocket-
books in their hands. There are long col
umns of newspaper advertisements, an- I
nouncing the fact that a purse here and a
purse there has strayed or stolen. There
have been deadly encounters between police
officers and thieves, with bullet wounds ga
lore, consternation, disturbance of the peace
and the nerves of dozens shattered. Why?
" Because a woman carries her purse in her
hand.
The poor women are all the while totally
unconscious ^of the commotion they cause.
Just watch the average woman as she strolls
along the street, with her chin in the air
and her pocketbook in her hand. She loves
crowds, and she gets right into the middle of
one, still holding up her purse, an irresisti
ble temptation to a sneak thief. She is to
tally oblivious of her surroundings save the
central point of attention to which the crowd
is gaping. Su—enly a deft hand deprives
her of her purse, picking it easily from her
semi-conscious hold. She screams. A bigger
crowd gathers'. The thief makes off. And
milady goes into hysterics. After a little
while, when she calms down, she goes up the
street and buys another purse, and has it
charged, and you will iind her soon after, the
center of another crowd, nonchalantly, in
nocently and thoughtlessly gazing—just gaz
ing.
Then observe the woman inflicted with 'the
bargain microbe. She has a rare practice of
laying her purse down anywhere and on
anything. And she goes away and leaves it
lying, there. Then w’hen she comes back and
finds it gone, she is surprised. And she de
nounces the business methods of the store
and insinuates unkind things concerning the
honesty of the clerk, and she feels mean
generally, and a little put out. Why? Be
cause she carried her purse in her hand.
These are a few of the pernicious results of
the practice. But what seems to bother the
masculine mind is an exact reason for its
prevalence.
Some there are, no doubt, who would weave
about a simple matter the extravagance of
romance land. They would wish to find some
hidden mystery in the awful habit. There
are men, no doubt, who actually believe that
it has some psychological value, that it is
one of the few channels \%hich will lead to
important discoveries edheerning woman
hood, from the very fact of its universality.
The reasons, however, for the extent of the
practice are lucid, explainable and mani
fold.
“A pocket in a gown? Never!” said a local
modiste. “It is impossible! They distort the
shape, ruin the proper draping or hang, and
cannot be built in a gown without injuring
Us perfection in one way or anotheri” And
the edict of the modiste means law. Conse
quently, unless a woman insists upon the
construction of a pocket, she is compelled
by necessity to carry ‘her purse in her
band.
But suppose the fashion in gowjs permit
ted the possibility of a dozen pockets, she
probably would not be able to find a single
one which would accommodate her purse.
Ah! there’s the rub! It’s the size of her-
purse. And today they are larger than ever
they were in the history of money. They
are built with a half dozen separate com
partments, with a memorandum -book at
tached, and the family crest in gold on the
flap. A woman would not any more think
of pocketing a purse than she would of pock
eting an elephant. And then, she does not
want to, which is an important reason. If
the purse is an exquisite model in seal, liz
ard or monkey skin, heavily banded in sil
ver or gold, about ninety-nine women in a
hundred will prefer.to carry it in full view.
Then, a large purse, even if it must be
carried in the hand, is said to be the greatest
convenience ever invented by the ingenuity
of the fashion dictator and the tradesman.
It is not because women have a mint of
money that they want to carry It about with
them. Those largo purses generally contain
at the utmost, about 25 cents. But the ex
traordinary array of other things which they
contain would baffle and put to shame even
the small boy and his pocket. Here is a list
(Continued on Fage Seven.)
HUMAN DUPLICATES.
Like All Other Great Men the Presi
dent-Elect Has a Double.
HE ONCE ENDANGERED THE MAJOR’S REPUTATION FOR SOBRIETY.
CLEVELAND'S DOUBLES ARE HANY—SPEAKER REED
HAS A PHYSICAL COUNTERPART.
President-elect McKinley has a double. It
is the fate of all great men. President Cleve
land lias a dozen. Speaker Reed, in spite of
the marked peculiarites which have helped
to make him famous, has more than one. No
QUEENS OF HARD! GRAS CARNIVAL, NEW ORLEANS.
MISS LOUISE M. JOUBERT, Queen of Mithras.
MISS ALICE LAROUSSINE. Queen of Nereus. HISS LYDIA WINSHIP, Queen of Twelfth Night Revelers.
MRS. EDWARDS.
HISS STELLA DEMORUELLE, Queen of Consus. MISS EDNA TRIST.
MISS CELESTE BRITTON, Queen of Qne of the C arnival Balls. M,ss MAY VAN BENTHUYSEN, Queen of Nereus, 1896.
man is truly great until he has at least two
of them.
Major McKinley’s double came very near
being a factor in the major's candidacy for
the governorship of Ohio and if he had been
we would have another president-elect to
admire and read about today. If Major Mc
Kinley had gone into private life instead of
into the governorship of Ohio when he re
tired from the house of representatives, he
would have ceased to be a political quanti
ty of more than local importance. Politi
cians said to me when the major retired
from congress, “He has ceased to be a
presidential possibility unless he gets the
nomination from the next national conven
tion.” They were wrong. The major kept
himself alive by becoming the governor of
a great state.
M’KINLEY’S DOUBLE.
Here is where Major McKinley’s double
comes into the story. A gentleman conspic
uous in the politics of Ohio said to a friend,
“I will not support this man McKinley for
governor.” “Why?’ said his friend. "Be
cause. he replied. “I cannot support for gov
ernor a man who gets drunk.” “Drunk!”
said his friend. “You rev. r saw William
jjSoKInley ilruVK. I d’otiht if he ever tastes
liquor.” “That shows how little you can
know of the man.” said the first speaker. “I
saw him blind drunk not many days ago at
Major McKinley's friend was much
disturbed. He knew -there was a mistake
somewhere. But where? He went to the
major in his extermity. and it happened that
on that very day there came to the home of
the major a man who lived not many miles
from Canton. His card came in when the
conversation was in progress. The major
listened to what his friend had to say of his
conversation with the accuser. Then he sent
for his other visitor. He entered. The first
caller looked at him in surprise. If he had
met him on the street, he might have mis
taken him for Major McKinley. The major
smiled -that quiet smile which has made so
many of his recent visitors at Canton feel
at ease. “Were you at on such a day?’*
he asked. The newcomer said he believed he
was. “My dear fellow,” said the major, “you
j will ruin me if you don’t take the pledge.
Here is a gentleman who br.ngs me the
story that I was drunk in on that day.
when- I wasn’t within 100 miles of the place.”
The visitor confessed that he had indeed
been drunk on the day at the place named.
He was a good friend of the major. Pie was
not a public character, and he .had not real
ized that his conduct was a matter of im
portance to any one but the members of his
family and himself. He and the major had
a good laugh over the confusion of their
identity, and the first visitor went away pro
vided with an alibi for the major and a so
lution of the story which his friend had
told.
^RESIDENT CLEVELAND’S DOUBLE.
President -Cleveland, as I have said, has
many doubles. Some people think -that A. A.
Wilson, the marshal of the District of Col
umbia, looks like him. The resemblance
does not strike me. but all eyes do not see
alike. Any stout man with a fat face and a
mustache, without positive features, might
look a little like Mr. Cleveland to some eyes.
Speaker Reed is another fat man who has
doubles. The chief among these in Wash
ington was the late Charles N. Bell, the pho
tographer. He really did look like Reed, the
point of difference between them being that
Reed’s little mustache was black, while the
shadow which hung on the upper lip of Bell
was red. If Mr. Bell were living now and
had shaved off his mustache, as Mr. Reed
has done, there would be little to distinguish
one from the other. What made it easy to
recognize Mr. Bell or Mr. Reed when Mr.
Bell was alive was -the fact that Mr. Bell
rode up Pennsylvania avenue in a cariage,
while Mr. Reed always walked or took a
cable car. Few of the statesmen who sit in
the house or senate have carriages.
The likeness of Mr. Bell to Mr. Reed was
a source of annoyance to Mr. Bell. This is
not often- the case with men who are dou
bles. Usually the double takes pride in his
resemblance to some public man, and some
times he uses it as a means to play jokes or
set of “sideboards” which would aatract at-
departments who is used as the instrument
of a practical joke very often. He looks like
a conspicuous statesman, and he is intro
duced to a group of strangers by his friends
as “Senator .” He assumes the charac
ter very seriously, and the visitors go away
from Washington firm in the conviction that
they have spent an evening with a senator.
They also note in their conversations after
ward that it is characteristic of a senator in
Washington that he allows some one else
to order ail -the drinks.
DR. DEPEW’S DOUBLE.
Chauncey Depew said the last time he was
here that he was always getting letters
from men who thought they looked like him.
Mr. Depew is likely to have doubles in al
most every community because of the pecu
liar cut of his whiskers, Mr. Depew has a
set of “osdeboards” which would attract at
tention anywhere, and as that style of
adornment is not popular it is not surprising
th-at men who have no other of his charac
teristics tou. these whiskers and a Roman
nose are saluted in various parts of the
world as “Mr. Depew.” These doubles of
ten send Mr. Depew their photographs and
ask for his In return.
The most complete double of Mr. Depew
was the late circus manager, Adam Fore-
paugh. Mr. Forepaugh did really look like
(Continued on Page Ten.)