"IN OLD NEW YORK."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 78, 8 May 1914, Page 4

"IN OLD NEW YORK."

To an Australian, the beauties and wonders of the great shops of New York, the styles and dresses, and the home life, are full of interest, writes "E.G." in the Sydney "Daily Telegraph. '' It is a pleasure to go exploring through that city of sky-scrapers, to enter the great doorways of Macy's and Gimble's and look at the wonderful displays. Everything is done on a grand scale. The Japanese department is a beautiful portion of the East, and one is struck by the lifelike form of a 'rickshaw boy holding a lifesize 'rickshaw, in which is seated a Japanese lady, gorgeously dressed. They are just figures, but at first they seem so real. Then one finds beautiful kimonas and household goods from the Far East.

Later, one wanders to the room where there are rows of seats, and onlookers are seated, as in a concert-hall, all facing a raised platform, where pretty models, in exquisite garments, walk gracefully up and down. The styles this winter were many and varied. Beautiful fur coats were in evidence everywhere, and black dresses, with bands of leopard skin, were very fashionable. To be really smart, a woman must wear a touch of leopard-skin somewhere about her dress, or in her hat. Small black velvet hats are very much worn, with an upstanding feather of what we term "the feather duster" type.

I saw Evelyn Thaw, Harry Thaw's beautiful wife .of yore, in a gown of mole colour satin, with a slight slit in

the skirt, a dainty gleam of silken stocking, and patent leather shoes showing. She wore a shoulder wrap of mole satin, lined with grey, and edged with leopard-skin. The small black velvet hat had a touch of rose pink, and she looked very smart and pretty, -on t|ie roof garden of the Knickerbocker Hotel.

The big stores provide a large concert hall, free to their patrons, wheresome of the best artists of the day perform. Each store has its dining-room, library, and lounge, where ladies may write letters on polished writing tables, see their friends, or rest.

A fascinating place to wantler through is the Ten-cent Store, where everything there is to be had for fivepence. Such wonderful bargains one sees—quite irresistible. Little gems of pictures, a wire hat frame, a pretty example of glass, jug, or tumbler, all 'the latest music—in fact, almost everything one could think of in the household line. The owner, Mr Woolworth, has made such a fortune out of his ten-cent stores all over America, that he has just built the greatest skyscraper in the world — 60 stories high—called the Woolworth Building. In New York one sees a great deal of life in flats. Pretty suites of from three to six* rooms and more, fitted with electric light, and having a bathroom attached to each bedroom. So daintily furnished are these flats, situated in some of the high buildings, floor after floor being devoted to flat-life.

Everywhere one sees the polished floors and rugs—never linoleum like we use. Carved wooden beds everywhere; one rarely sees a brass model. The American housewife is ever busy and energetic. She finds time to do the most beautiful embroidery, and her house and table-linen are all exquisitely hemstitched, embroidered, and her initials are worked on them. All her household silver is marked with her initial also, and sometimes one sees silver, a hundred years old, with the initial of- a great-grandmotlier engraved.

■One thing I missed very much in America,, and that was the cheery cup of afternoon tea. They rarely indulge in that fascinating habit. One or two families have recently started a new fashion* of five o'clock tea, but' one seldom comes across it. The American woman wonders how we in Australia can bother making and drinking our afternoon cups of tea. One woman said to me, "Why, one could pay three calls while one was having a cup of tea —think of the time you Australians waste by having afternoon tea! " But we do love our cup of tea "and the friendly little chats. Now and again, for my special benefit, my hostesses would have tea made, but I could tell they did not know much about the art, for the tea was served very weak, without sugar or milk, and with a slice of lemon floating in it. I never saw one American take milk and sugar in tea. They don't care much for the beverage—coffee and chocolate being great favourites. The theatres are a great pleasurfe in New York. It is such fun to set off in the evenings to hear a great artist

one might never hear in Australia. To* journey along the thronged streets, to admire the pretty toilettes and animated faces of the American women ? to be fascinated by the lighted street cars and the whirr of the overhead railways; t to -see and hear Caruso and, Emmie Destinn at the Metropolitan Opera House, and realise how glorious are their voices; or perhaps to see Madame Pavlova, the Russian dancer, at tijo Manhattan Opera House.

Between the acts there is time to admire the bevy of gaily dressed people, to hear the accent, so pretty and quaint, to observe the spaciousness arid mag-" nificenee of the Opera* House or ;: theatre, and the strains of soft music from the first-class orchestras.

Then away, to a rOof garden, of one of the big hotels, where white-clad waiters serve coffee and refreshments, and fair women sing to yet another orchestra, hidden away among the palms. Then homeward through the busy, wide streets,' along the'wonder, of the great White Way, with its myriad signs in electric light, past the jwaldorf Astoria Hotel, with its crowded hallways, through the tube, to the banks of the Hudson River, where- the American home stands, and Australia seems very far away. One enjoys every day to the fullest degree," and never in the world can you. forget the fascination of old New York.