LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7644, 22 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] * Chicago, April 5,

THE FASHIONS here are lovely, though the women are so dowdy that nothing looks well on them, but the goods are a revolatiou, and cheap. Why, you can dress for nothing, and they'll pay you for removing the goods. The hats are made of the same stuff as the dress, and all the trimming is put at the back instead of in front; but, if, flowers are used in front, they ara not laid on, but placed perfectly upright, as if growing in a bed. Feathers are grouped far back on one side, or rather continuing round the back, and these high, plain hats are beautiful effected this way. Gloves are almost all in shades of tan. You can purchase beauties for 2s id a pair, and the best for 6s; so different to paying 103, as in San Francisco. Gentlemen's shirts are remarkable at 2s id each; satin ties, 9id; and everything proportionately cheap, only FOOD —that is expensive. The restaurants here are far ahead of those in San Francisco. The appliances are all perfect, and you pay for the same. In Sau Francisco, you pay Is Jd for three dishes ; here you pay from Is id to 3s 4.1 for a dish. Oysters are cheaper, aud very large, but not so well flavoured as I have had them. ft is impossible for a person with a healthy appetite to live at a restaurant, having, say, two meals » day, for less than os 41 or 43. All those little etceteras of celery, beetroot, and salad thac are always on the table at San Francisco, are here charged 5d each. It is monstrous, when you are not a millionaire. There are cheap places two miles further out, but the very bent is good enough for me. Fruit is high here. I miss the fruit and flowers. Hush are much finer here, but awfully dear. California oranges, those called the Navel oranges, being seedless, are Ss 4d a dozen, and lemons, there sd, are here 13 id per dozen. California claret, there 4s a gallon, is hern 4s for two bottles, and wages are iow. There is one peculiarity about this city : instead of enforcing the Education Law, all the stores have little girls for cashiers instead of boys, and all the clerks are girls. There are 800 children in one store, which by-and-bye 1 shall write up fully. Ncne of them are educated, though all seem able to add up sums and perform their cash duties properly ; but, whereas too much education is bad, too little is worse. The wages are miserable, and yet the store girls dress well. We do not stop to enquire how they do it on 12a per week. Too much Chicago will pall; therefore I will hold over a further description at present, with this one parting remark *. they are nothing if not comedians. For instance, they label the egijs in baskets as "strictly fresh." When the weather is fine, ycu will see quickly improvised signs, reading, " Shoat the fur cape ; step in and buy a nice spring bonnet or, "Ye tramps, who have by rain been led, walk in and now re-dress your headwith a spring hat." Another si|n is : " Smith the tailor, on the square " Dinner's ready now, come in and so on. Really tunny are these natives, »nd no doubt I shall be able to entertain you for some time about their peculiarities.

BOYCOTTING is the order cf the day. The whole continent of America is on the strike, either for short hours or higher wages. The railroads have been stopped in many places by order of theso odious knights of labour, who now boycott everything and every person. A San Francisco judge has recently given his decision that boycotting the Chinese is unconstitutional and unlawful, on account of our treaty with China. Mow, before I left San Francisco, thousands of Utiinarnen were driven into the city from country towns by tho boycotting plan. Pretty soon San Francisco will not hold the hordes which must find a resting place somewhere when turned out of their country quarters. Among others, Adelina Patti has been boycotted in Spain. The Spanish nobility are rising in disgust at her prices, and justly so. Why should one woman got £600 for one night, only singing half the time tho opera is on, and, at most, not more than two or three arias ? This is a boycott that will provo a blessing. ' Madame Patti may be the fashion, but she is not worth the money she demands, for which the resit of the troupe always suffer. The Tribune of this city has just lowered its priou from 2Jd to ljd. It is a magnificent piper of 26 pages in its Sunday issue, and 16 in the daily. There is a perfect furore of indignation over it, and the result will resolve itself into a boycott. v A FLOWER SHOW. A lady who has just come from New York gives a wonderful description of the late flower show, which has been the sensation of the week. The affair was held in the Grand Opera House, and the number of flowers exhibited was 170,000—85,001) roses, 65,000 bulbs, and 20,000 shrubs. The garden at the entrance was laid out like an old English garden, with tulips, primroses, and hyacinths, tho back walls of the garden being covered with ivy, also in English fashion. The roses she describes as being the size of peonys, growing in tubs, also tubs of rare azaleas and heliotrope, the entire pit of the opera house being filled with flowers. One notable exhibit was a New Zealand fern, 23 feet high, surrounded by maiden hair, which nestled at its foot. There were orchids in pyramids, some of which were valued at £200 a specimen. Oh the stage was a vast circle of Easter lilies, lying on a mossy bank, over which fell jots of sparkling water. Surrounding them were low wiro fences, entwined with ivy, and among the leaves thousands of tiny jets of electric lights, which had the appearance of twinkling stars among the rare roses. Her Majesty took the palm, being a hybrid, fourteen and a-half inches in diameter. At the back of the fountain, whioh occupied the centre of the stage, reflected by mirrors, were banks of English primroses, tulips, and various carnivorous plants. Although ijot half the flowers were growing, yet they had the appearance of being in that state, being embedded in banks of earth and moss, and in flower pots, the whole house being covered with ivy. I must not omit to mention two cabbage palms, 300 years old, brought from Florida at a cost of £300. The sum taken was not told to me, but the place was crowded for three days at 4s admission, and 2s Id for the Sunday intervening. It is ourious to see the flowers here in Chicago ; roses and lilies in abundance at this time of year, when the snow is thick, but, of course, they are forced. Still, along the streets stand cartloads of the most lovely flowers— thousands of them—and, though they arc not outdoor growth, as in San Francisco, they are much finer; in fact, I never saw flowers there so fine as these forced blooms, and you have to pay for the e&me, I assure you. No lovely fivepenny bouquets, no

violet-laden air, and yet the magnificence of the flowers is beyond description.

THE CHEAP RATES on the railroads are now absolutely ridiculous. I came here for £4 four we* ago. The fare now is :—First clans, £2 IGh ; second, £2; from San Francisco to New York, £5 JGs, first class, with guarantee to bring passengers back within 30 days at the name figure. In consequence thereof all those poor, needy creatures, who have been caged in California for so many years, like Sterne's starling, and unable to get out, are flocking from that point to this, and, though people here say the times are "quiet," yet everyone seems to fall into something. On the other hand, numbers of people avail themselves of the cheap rates to visit California ; some to settle there—and I hope they'll like it—others to visit. These rates are splendid. They permit of loved ones who have been long parted meeting once more on earth, for at the old rates your loved ones might die, and, unless you had a couple of hundred dollars in your purse, there would be no possibility of gotting to them ; but I think it is nearing the end. The fighting owners will ere long settle their differences, and up will go the rates once more. I shall have much interesting matter to communicate about this beautiful city ; meanwhile, as a wind up, I may s;iy that Mrs. Mackay has been to the Queen's drawingroom, her diamonds eclipsing everyone and everything there. She must feel happy, having attained her long-sought end. MARY ANDERSON. By the way, Mary Anderson, of whom, of course, you have heard, is now going to retire from the stage for two years, and study for opera. What a craze women have for figuring in two or three lines since Sara Bernhardt set the fashion. I saw Mary Anderson play in " Pygmalion and Galatea," ohe, of course, being Galatea, the statue, who four times comes to life. She was perfect as the statue, and acted it all through. She is a tall, angular woman, with long, thin arms, but her grace in winding her draperies about her and her poses were matchless. Her profile is pretty, hut I can't bear the expression of her full face ;itisto me catlike. Nor do 1 like her at all in other parts, She has no soul pure, calm, and cold, her personal magnetism is nil. I don't see what people rave about her for. Neilsou was the one woman for me. I don't think Mary fit to tie her shoe strings ; but, then, I am only one, so don't take her on my say. Silver Pen.