GENTLE ART OF POLITE PANHANDLING " They Toil Not, Neither Do They Spin; Yet I Sayr Unto You, Solo* mon in All His Glory Was Not Arrayed Like One of These" § EZRA KNOX (Oopjrijftt, IM9. All rights reserTtd.) They toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. DID you ever attend a meeting of the "How Can She Afford to Dress That Way Club?" If you are a woman it is certain you have,, and many men are enrolled , as associate members. It is affiliated with the "How Can He Afford to Spend Money That Way Club?" made up exclusively of men. The meetings of both organizations are held any time at any place and two present constitute a quorum. The most popular meeting place of the "How Can She Afford to Dress That Way Club" is in the corri dor or parlor of one of the fashionable hotels. Ses eions are held every evening at the theater and opera, and not infrequently on the street corners. Whenever and wherever you see two women looking with fishy eyes at another woman it is almost certain a special meeting of the club has been called. . This is the way meetings are held. Two women are engaged in earnest conversation about any sub ject, preferably woman suffrage. Usually they are women who have summoned both science and art to conceal the fact that they are not as young as they once were, and who are now getting stout. They are helping the United States steel corporation pay divi dends by wearing an armor plate contrivance from their arms to their knees to dissipate as much as pos sible the impression that they are taking on flesh, and also* to enable them to wear those straight gowns that were never intended for large women. They are the busy little talkers when they see walking through the hotel corridor a sylphlike creat ure, one of the kind who can wear the prevailing modes without banting, and who always has the last word in the milliner's creation. She is one of that kind that the other.women look at twice,- and the men four or five times. When the eyes of the women who are discussing the entirety of ' the cosmos or sorhe. other weighty subject fall on this creature the discus sion ends; if they know her there is a call for a special meeting of the club and each tries to beat the other to it by saying first: — . "How can she afford to dress that way?" It is possible to say those words so they sound like a simple inquiry. It is also possible to say them so they sound like a rehearsal of the anvil chorus. There is a happy medium between the two, one that can be interpreted either way, and it is to those who can strike that medium the high honors of the club go. THE SOCIAL PANHANDLER . There is a reason for the question. Every big.city has hundreds of women— good women— who dress well, live well and .who. can riot tell themselves how they do it They have reduced to an exact science "the frivolous work" of . polished idleness." "They are wel- corned — and that does not mean tolerated— in many homes and they have real friends. They go to the opera and their names are seen in the society columns. If asked how they do it they can not tell, for they have never wanted to think it out.- . This is the answer: They are social panhandlers, the bunko artists of the fashionable world; They are FATE CANNOT HARM ME; .1^ HAVE H DINED; TO-DAY':" gamblers who play all they have as the stake, turn trie cards witb/fate arid risk their future on the throw of the dice. Many, of : them win, for j the social"pan handler of -today may \be the society, leader , of 'to morrow and may be asking some, other' woman the very question asked about her =a: short time i ; before/ There are different classes of ' these social pan handlers, running from class Ai the members of .which are welcomed in fashionable hom^s and who have to decide what invitations they will accept, through the scale to the woman who lives in a hall bedroom, takes her luncheon at the food demonstrations in i the ! de partment stores, writes her. letters in the hotels arid prays that sheNvill be' invited to dinner. No two women of the same class are alike, and- yet there are characteristics which every woman of every" class must have. Beauty is desirable, and so -is youth, but neither' is absolutely essential. But a woman must ' have charm, with- all that word implies. .'She ; must have tact, graciousness, a genuine sympathy arid \u25a0more than that. : •:*'.- These are all as essential ; to the success of . a social ; .panhandler as a suave mariner and a' convincing speech are to- the wireless wire tapper. She must know how to wear clothes and. that means looking: better in an inexpensive dress than many woirien can inthe best product of the dressmaker's art. Above all, a woman of this kind must be whatVsouth of the; slot wpuld describe as "a skirt with some; class,", and it is hard with the riiore elegant vocabulary ;' of Pacific ". avenue to give a better description: V '. , _. "^ : \u25a0 Rarely are these women natives. Now^ and then one HO* CAN SHE ATORDTa'ORESS. THAT mY> overcomes the handicap of birth in this city, but for many reasons they* are more: likely to come from' the east or thesouth, ahdUf one is from the latter section with ! the right kind oi an accent it is doubly hard for her to fail. No two of them come to town for just the same reason, but. it: is only a difference in detail^ '\ and no one of them ever came with a plan of campaign' mapped ". out. \, Take a. typical case of a young woman; who . is in ; class A. Her, father is" not "a" but "the" distinguished \u25a0citizen of somel-small city. She l\as been educated in ; one of the fashionable schools of the east and has become acquainted . with wealthy New York girls, •who love' her for that charm' which is to become so ;to her. They correspond with- her .when ' she or ; they go to Europe, i and she has a standing in vitation to visit the homes of a half dozen or more of ; these friends; whenever she is in the city. SO NEW YORK; GETS HER ;; .; With: old' age that hard headed ; father" gets it in his ' head that he can make the New York financiers look like cashboys' in a'department store or he sells to the Patten of his day a lot of wheat heroes not own. ; When; the .estate is '\u25a0; settled this young woman who -has always been put in" the heiress class'finds she-has a few thousand •-. dollars ", and an income which would keep henriicelyin Milpitas or whatever city .it may be. She ' has seen New York, and while she is not im bued with 'the idea that she would; rather be a lamp post < in Broadway than the whole electric : light works in Chico '*. she ''decides i to ; take t the few thousand J dol lars in 'cash and the small" income and ;. study art. . in New .York'for; a time, where she can live with an = aunt, . and later in Pans. \u25a0 "'. '; r. -V With.her artistic tendency and" ability, , if she: had" been a man she might have become the best, barn •painter in.her native county, and after j, years ; of toil might "have aspired to paint" patent /medicine^ signs on rocks 'and ; fences." .: As /women have . hot r y et k entered that field of endeavor/no matter how earnest she'may : j)e: art > holds -littlei future for/, her;; ; ; / \ ;v; v - When^she arrives in;New /York she calls on her old school friends. Her. charm wins allshe comes in con tact; with, and' there afe^ invitations to teas,"> luncheons,' dinners, abridge rparties;;and;:tor: the^opera^ \u25a0{, She ;is th ro wn 'into a social wtii rl _ • that bio ts out all thought of : ar t,fand^.the fact that. 'she is^not^ very^ strong^ for Ut .helps ; ; the process. ; : She has friends, in .the different social ; cliques and she is popular ;\vith all: It . takes "clothes" to~do " all ' the ; things \u25a0 she: is .called ' upon to.; do, .for shabbiness will not - be>' excused by those - who ; admire her', hiost's for -her cleverness .'and ' her - charm. / She has'a'- large wardrobe,;. ' arid ? with "'a '.; seamstress;- the i old clothes ' : areVmad<^;to'!lqok:like^riewV: /particularly, as^ 'she i is:. one \of those rare :'.woinen\whb^ : look -.well in anything/,^ She. finds; ah 5 inexperisivei .milliner arid : designs; h^ •\u25a0 * Paris -models. \u25a0 She > goes ' : to i the- hairdresser, for she has Cunconsciously \u25a0'came to -thek realizing » sense ; that ; there must be no backward step -in : lief* personal ',ap ;-;,pearance;';.,':: -'\u25a0"\u25a0.\u25a0\u25a0. .' \u25a0\u25a0 :':: ':- ~' : 1 \u25a0\u25a0•--:.,./?, \' -' \u25a0' \u25a0' '\u25a0. .',: : '^ : I ".".-.\u25a0•^So;i ; after ;allj" k it' is ''tip; great .;\yOnde*r L that, worrieri; ask. ; the, question.:- They; will' : 'see -this; young. \voman,",\who ; :is keeping an engagement'.p.er|^pp^jtiie : Waldorf^ ; Astoria;" bowing gracioush'^ to' this .friend! arid! that oiie w tasvsnei walks ; through -the "cornaor,-: dressed- 111 .- ; moiiey.% ; -Tlie memberslomnelclub»hj.ve*foundKi^Ha^ ! | rwjomeir ;^ajrj "alwaysSfind^out,f^bout|her financial re sources, and there is the swift race- to see who can "How can she afford to dress that way?" ~-l Clothes will wear out and the time comes when our class. A young woman realizes, although perhaps it is unconsciously, .that she is making a gamble of life. She has had proposals, and tthere are men of wealth jWho are ready to marry her, but she has been 'waiting t for the' right! man. "She can't leave the life that "has become part of her, and she must have clothes to, keep on until,she makesup her Vriind. She takes a chance. "Gwendolyn, that is a handsome suit," she will say to one of her^friends. "I wish you would introduce mejtb your tailor." • ' .Gwendolyn's. father- is one of the men. the social ists talk about and who has contracted a glass arm cutting coupons.- So when the* young- woman with that, kind of an introduction goes, to. a tailor she gets what she wants and there, is "nothing said about the time of the; payment . And the tailor/being a real artist, delights in making a suit for the ; woman with the ; fine figure, particularly as Gwendolyn ' and some of his other wealthy customers have shapes that can . be best described as "dumpy." ; LONG LIST TO "DO"' _ i, ;Of course there is no money to pay the bill, and in the course of time it is charged in with ' Gwendolyn's and the other wealthy customers' accounts. .^ Other friends introduce her to the furrier, -the milliner,- and she gets a new outfit. .There, are many places-in New York, so' it will be years before the lisVis ex hausted: The.end has to come some time, and the happy end ing is to have her marry the :brother of Gwendolyn or • some other young man r with plenty o*f money, pay the bills and live happily. She will eventually become one: of the women. who will sit and ask that question about some other struggling young woman, and- never think that if she 'would she could give . the answer. ; These social 'panhandlers run down the scale. in so ciety. There are those who \u25a0 dress "well, have a room at. afashionable hotel, and; who try to live on their invi tations to dinner. If the invitations .are hbt'forthcom- r ing she will drop in bn^a family she knows just the Earner* "I am. simply^ dying for some home cooking," she ENTER THE MONORAIL rpHE advocates of the monorail system of ; traction I have been trying for i many years to "introduce it •*•, on some important \u25a0 American line, but without success. The'feceritly. granted franchise for a.mono-; : rail ; road from Bartow station . to City, island, within "tie'; limits, -of the city of New York, is of : muchs ifiterest to railroadmen. . This line is only" a fthV-ee mile ''fe^^ r thetNewl Haven : road, • but- its promoters hope ,that : it may prove an entering wedge to larger things. ; \u25a0\u25a0>. In the most important monorail system- now exist \u25a0 irigV-that ".between; Elberfeld and Barmen, in Ger many-—which :. has ; now been in operation 10 years, the cars are susperrded from an overhead structure,' so there; is : ho" question of balancing.; .^ln: the ' sys ;tem^proposed'for >New. York the rail 4s 'beneath; the car, which- is y kept 1 from upsetting' by^ an overhead .guide. ','_-, -"'^ : - \u25a0 • •Although Jnot ; ' extensivel y . adopted > for ; : passenger * . the monorail is ; largely used for trav-' •jeiirigi cranes, V automatic r electric carriers, etc. : ;In> : fact,' an 'of dinar y \u25a0 cable 'way. is; practically , a monorail . .' The s monorail people . are of 3 opinion that .\u25a0: their, system -ha^ irieverJ had -a* fair>sb^w v but: traction^ * experts, r while;adinitting;its *adyantages;for sriiall car-; riers,-: have % neve V.i been '§ enthusiastic , about ' it "in ; its ". ; larger, forms?; assert 'that fno • satisfactory . proof 3 ; of its' superioiity * over an .ordinary; two^ rail • road has levers been 'given. : ft may^ossibly.i as -is asserted, 'be, capable of higher speeds, -but this would hardly be to its advantage on. short lines. \u25a0 H. G. Wells in his book. "The War in the Air!*' \u25a0"-'.-\u25a0 \u25a0-\u25a0;\u25a0\u25a0: '-/^; ; v--v-'-r'-: \u25a0-:-\u25a0\u25a0:" :^ ; -\u25a0'•' . The San v 'Francisco Sunday Call will i gurgle, "and I knew I couldn't 4 get it anywhera as good as.it fs he^e.. You can't: imagine how tired one gets, of hotels and restaurants.'* It ; is" because she" has charm that she gets away wijti it for' a time arid receives a genuine welcome. iThen'comesthe day that her oldj friends^ are not at home to her, and - she remains away for a time until she can call again. • For a social panhandler can carry no grudges and cherish no resentments against any one. V .; '. \u25a0 There are; those who try the life and fail. If they are wise they, go~ back from where they came and take up the life- they^left That is easier said than 'done, howeveivfor they are victims of New Yorfciris by that time, and it ? is' a disease that few- ever recover from. They ihay" lack charm or there is something that pre vents . them^f roin _• getting on. You; read about these failures in the story of a suicide, and some of them have an ending even worse than death. But there are always those who come to take their places, aqd'the members of the "How Can She Afford to Dress That Way Club" -are never without plenty of persons to ask that question about. And what about the, men? There is no doubt that there are many, men in New York who have solved the- problem of existence, but how and almost why they live is a problem. They are honored members of the work dodgers, they dress well, go to theaters and have many friends. They -take the position, as many other men have/ that the world owes them a living, but these collect the debt without troubte and always without much work. • ; , :v: v Anyone who ' knows his upper Broadway well can think of J5 or 20 of these human \u25a0 puzzles.- You can't feel sorry for jhein, but, on the contrary, you always think . the y ; are feeling sorry for you because you have: to work. 'In the old days of racing they could be found'in the betting ring every afternoon, and, when they had the money they were no pikers,, and -when' they did not have' it they .tried to bet with markers." If they were lucky they spent the money just as if they had the money . tre I hc'jwn ;pay, throw back his shoulders and exclaim, I^Fate can not harm me;- I\ have dined today." .: " * '„ : " . ;- These ( men > panhandlers run whsle , gamut of s6ciety;from the members of j^he FiftF'avenue. clubs to. the .hobo who asks for a.' nicKkt,"* The class A men must have ; good clothes, and 'that .means, above all things, evening, clothes and the ability to wear them as if they were born in them. -There must be morning and {afternoon clothes,' and they must be ready to' accept invitations for weekends or a trip to. the Adirqridacks. It's a game that men do not play as well a3 women. They caivjWeey itup/fgr'a time, but the mea who work always view them with more or less suspicion, even when 'loaning them money. They may 'Iry to marry a rich girl, but the fathers of rich girls have a • prejudice against men who have no speaking acquaintance with work. 'Some of them keep it up fora long time, bat. most of .'them strike the toboggan sooner or later. They become real panhandlers or get. a job selling fake mining stock. Now and then they take a long chance and -the district attorney begins to inquire about them.* There' is a scandal, and the men .who know them once know .them no more. V Does New York like its social panhandlers? New York does. ,|t is amused by both the men and women, and New York is thankful for anything that amuses.. Besides there a*re some people with money who are so bored with life that they welcome the diversion of being^made^; good -thing of. It relieves the monotony! Ask any woman -who, has been the subject of in quiry on the 'part rof the "How Can She Afford to Dress That Way Club" and who has won out arid be come a ; member of that > club herself; ask any man who has raised* himself f rom the Work Dodgers* and who for any reason has become a useful member of society. If. they will talk at all they will tell, you it is;a hard : life, that there have been days when it was hard to smile, and to stop meant the end of .the game. They will tell- you. that the social panhandling may be hard on society, but it is much harder on the pan handler. • " makes' monorails; supersede^ all existing railroads be fore, the airship cornea to its own, and the r 8 ar« others who are* sure that' th© plan will speak for, it self if it only has a chance. THE. PARISH TOY SHOW THE'exhibition of toys held annually in Paris has become such a feature there, and has increased so ' enormously in vogue, that it is remarkable that ithaa not been imitated .elsewhere. A Frenchinewa ; paper asks /the pertinent < question— Why, since toys^ arc" to please children, should not the jury of *warai be composed of the only persons competent to judge whether this aim has been accomplished— namely, the children themselves t\ - The'fact.is/however, that the exhibition is not con \u25a0fined to toys, properly so called. It includes also ar ticles de Paris— knickknacks' s of all kinds, some oi which require expert scientific knowledge in the jurors. A' French writer tells of ''a. scientific toy shown at one "of. these exhibitions. A toy stean: engine of a'cotonxos^ type, using l an alcohol lamp as * fuel, ran a number of toy/ machines, arnong' them :a -dynamo,- which appar ently fed an electric lamp. : Now the energy, required to operate an lamp, even a toyone^isfar in excess of, that furnished by; the common toy engine. The jury sat up arid took "notice. The; exhibitor stqptly; maintained that the current from the toy dynamo, and naught* else, il lumined the lamp/; The " argument was ; brought to an- end' by the; accidental stoppage of all the machinery, notwithstanding which the lamp shone on benignly. The ; clever, inventor 1 had J concealed a . storage battery in: the stand on -which, the toy rested! J