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VA I NEW YORK The opera season Is in full
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New York Town Talk
Jewels Worth 50000000 Worn by Gotham Society Qneens at Open
ing of Opera Season Women Unattended May Now Eat in
Restaurant Other Interesting Notes
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PERA
swing and so Is the gorgeous display of Jewels by
New Yorks rich woman in and out of the 400
Every night at the Manhattan opera house where
Melba and the other stars are singing millions of
dollars of gems sparkle in the audience On the
first night of her appearance Mme Melba wore
500000 worth of jewelry and it is estimated that
the women in the boxes carried 50000000 more
New York has become the great diamond
market of the world and within the last five years
the demand for the gems has increased so enor
mously as to call attention to the fact that sev
eral New York families own collections which
rival the crown jewels of many reigning monarchs
Mrs Clarence Mackay has one sapphire which
alone is valued at 150000 It is four tenths of an
inch In diameter She also has diamonds that cost over 100000
Mrs J J Astor has a collection containing 135000 worth of diamonds
and sapphires It includes a diamond crown worth 50000 a tiara of dia
monds and emeralds worth 30000 a necklace of the same jewels worth
25000 and a bowknot of rubies and emeralds worth 10000
Mrs George Gould has a collection of jewels which has been estimated
at 480000 of which 20000 worth are rings One solitary ruby is valued
at 7000 The most valuable piece is a diamond and ruby necklace worth
35000
The Vanderbilt family owns 4000000 worth of jewels Mrs Alfred
Gwynne Vanderbilt added about 100000 worth ofdiamonds to the family
collection including a necklace valued at 80000
Mrs Harry Payne Whitney has two enormous diamond tiaras one val
ued at 40000 and five costly aigrets and comb worth 10000 The gem of
ier collection is a necklace worth 30000
Mrs Bradley Martin has jewels valued at over 500000 some experts
claiming that it Is the finest collection owned by any American woman The
most notable piece is a diamond breastplate which covers the front of a low
cut bodice literally clothing the owner with jewels It is valued at 10000
A collection of tiara neiXdaces bracelets and pins of carefully matched stones
s valued at 200000
WALDORF ASTORIA BOWS TO LONE WOMAN
Woman has conquered The Waldorf Astoria
bote has posted the following notice Ladies
without escort will be served in the restaurants
hereafter at any hour
So the triumph of the modern independent
woman is written in black and white at the
No longer is mere man essential to
lier midnight supper
Yes we will serve women said the only
Oscar the other day What else can you do in a
hotel For that matter ve have always served
our guests It mustjT ne in a hotel You can
not have a rigid rule - women unattended can
not be served in the dining rooms after six oclock
Of course we shall continue to be careful We
must use some discretion But any woman or
P 5l30BK3SMi In ill i
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women who come here at any time and have the
appearance of being respectable will be welcome to dine in any of the res
taurants
When did you make the new rule and why Oscar was asked
Ah said the wise Oscar the women are being heard from nowadays
They are found in every business and in some they lead the men It is
enough to say they have conquered that they have shown that they do not
need the attendance of men It was not so a few years ago or even a few
months ago Not so long ago the doors were closed to women at Sherrys
and Delmonicos But the bars are down now There is only one restaurant
in New York where women cannot dine without an escort after six oclock
That is the Cafe Martin l
TAX LIST OF GOTHAM MILLIONAIRES
SSHP5S
Tax books opened for public inspection the
other day show that Andrew Carnegie again heads
the list as the heaviest payer of personal property
He did not object to the assessment of his per
sonal property at 5000000
But John D Rockefeller Jr submits to a
taxation on only 50000 worth of personality
Personality includes jewelry furniture paintings
stocks and bonds and everything not taxed un
der the real estate law
In this same list it will be observed that
Alfred R M Goslin a fugitive from justice and
high finance swindler is assessed for 00000 or
10000 more than John D Rockefeller Jr Han
nah Elias a negress who got 650000 from John
R Piatt is requested to pay a tax on 71000 worth
of personality
Ths estate of Russell Sage is assessed at 2000000 quite an increase
over last year when Mr Sage was alive
William E Corey a comparative newcomer in the city who is now in
Europe to see Mabelle Gilman whom he is to marry has not taken the time
to swear qffan assessment of 100000
All of Vanderbilts total an assessment of 2800000 August Belmont
Is let down Jb a tax on 100000 His brother O H P Belmont is assessed
twice that much
Assessors could find only 30000 that Senator Chauncey M Depew should
pay a personalty tax on while John W Gates who has no more of a home in
New York city than a suite at the Waldorf is assessed at 250000 Gates
is not in politics
J Pierpont Morgan is assessed at 400000 and John Jacob Astor at
100000 less
Among the assessments are William Rockefeller 350000 H H Rogers
300000 Alfred G Vanderbilt 250000 Cornelius Vanderbilt 150000
v The total assessed value of real and personal property in the city as
figured by the assessors this year will be about 8805219570
HOSPITAL IN CHINATOWN FOR ALMOND EYED ORIENTALS
Almost within the shadows of the vine clad
walls of the Little Church Around the Corner
and near the western border of Gothams China
town stands a modest little old fashioned red
brick building Across the front of the structure
stretches a sign in large gilt letters such as are
seeen on packages of firecrackers Tie characters
of the sign when translated read Chung Wab
Kong Sor E Sang Fong The inscription is not
the name of a new brand of tea nor that of a
Chinese consul Translated into English the
words are The Combined Chinese Speaking So
cietys Hospital
The infirmary is beyond the well beaten path
of Chinatown sightseers although not far from
the main joss house on Doyers street Were the
meaning of the sign generally known every visi
tor In the city would demand the guides to pilot them through the strange
little institution that they might explore the place and try to solve its mys
teries And the hospital has some mysteries which according to the old
Chinese superstition can only be solved by the great Joss At the hospital
many slant eyed residents of the Bowery and other districts of New York
are treated daily
It is the only hospital in the country with possibly the exception of a
Similar institution Jn San Francisco in which patients are not permitted to
die They are hustled from the hospital before the Back Dragon enters the
place and removed to the death room in Chinatown where the sinking patient
expires When a sick Chinaman has become so low that it is an assured
fact that he is soon to see the light of another world some peculiar rites are
conducted around his bedside by his cousins and his friends There are
two small altars in the hospital one to Joss and one to Confucius Three
times a day tie Bi Soy Sot or prayer for the safe journey of the departing
one is said before the altars The dispensary department of the little hos
pital contains the queerest collection of nostrums imaginable The yock
toy or medicine includes powdered cockroaches snakeskins powdered toads
and frogs skins oil of snails and oil of herbs -
MADE RECORD RUN
REMARKABLE SPEED ON FRENCH
RAILROAD LINE
Body of Dead American Carried to
Coast at Average Speed of 75
Mileo an Hour Ameri
can Locomotives
The body of a dead American has
made the swiftest railway run of the
whole world
Cooks agents hanging round the
Paris Gare St Lazare tell the story
Some say it was the mortal remains
of Mrs Strong the daughter of John
D Rockefeller Others say it was the
body of a man an American a mil
lionaire I never heard his name be
fore It may be there are many
such The French railway people will
tell nothing To admit the facts
would be confession that the French
laws 75 mile per hour limit had been
broken flagrantly by a special train in
long spurts over the most important
roadbed of France
Let lie dead therefore rest after
its all-records-breaking dash to catch
an English boat
But is it not an awful picture the
impassive corpse alone in its car
crashing onward faster faster to
make the connection that will give it
peace in its own hallowed home soil
The peculiar incident has very
much struck the Parisians and all the
more so as it illustrates the terrific
speeds French railways are attaining
writes Sterling Heilig in the New
York Press It was a special funeral
train of two cars quitting Paris a few
minutes ahead of the train de luxe
facultatiff of the
lais express itself the fastest train in
Europe with one of the fastest long
breaks in the world It does the 8115
miles between Paris and Amiens in
77 minutes 632 miles per hour and
the whole 185 miles in 180 minutes
The corpse did it in just two hours
and a half or 150 minutes making
the sustained break of 185 miles at
the average of 73 miles and when
the first wonder of it passes the ques
tion arises How have French rail
roads suddenly attained such sensa
tional speeds over their curving and
otherwise inferior roadbeds
It is a creditable American story
because if in the last five years the
French lines first one then another
have broken all the proudest English
records it has been due purely and
simply to the adoption of American
type locomotives
Somewhere around 1899 1900 two of
the French state lines found them
selves in the predicament of being re
fused locomotives by all the French
makers Arrogantly sure of the home
business they had refused to enlarge
their plants or to work overtime They
told their customers to wait
Now the French government is
after all not to be turned down in
this style Nor is the Orleans railway
So before the Creusots knew what
was going to strike them both the
State and the Orleans lines had bought
a number of high speed American
built locomotives A small row was
raised at the spectacle of a govern
ment discriminating against its own
it was between Bayonne and Dax
tuat the historic accident occurred
The Sud express simply dashed off one
of the roads abrupt curves at a tan
gent No satisfactory explanation has
ever been assigned but I have heard
that the roadbed had been undermined
by water from a spring that suddenly
trickled through the rocks at one side
At any rate the Sud express now does
Paris Bayonne at an Inclusive average
of 50 miles per hour
That the other French companies
lost no time in profiting by the exam
ple to improve their ballasting and
substitute heavier rails is certain but
even on the most famous trunk line
stretches there remain the numerous
curves grade crossings and facing
points that would send an American
engineer promptly into nervous pros
tration
Over such handicapping conditions
and in spite of the absence of pick
up water troughs the Paris Lille ex
press makes the 120 mile dash be
tween Paris and Arras In 117 minutes
at the rate of Cl1 imles an hour
This for its distance is said to be
the fastest run in the w -just as
Paris Amiens 81 miles at- the rate
of G32 and the still faster Camden
Atlantic City are the fastest for their
respective distances
RAILWAY WORK IN AFRICA
Rapid Progress in New Construction
Opening Mineral Fields
Next to the Cape to Cairo line the
most important railroad now in con
struction in Africa is that which will
connect Lobito bay on the Atlantic
with the mineral fields of Katanga in
the southeast corner of the Congo It
is being built by the Tanganyika Con
cessions limited a British company
TAMPLX 07 TriZ 5t CALKED
ThMNTIC TYPf TKEMCH BUILT
which holds a concession from the
Congo government of an area id Ka
tanga 60000 square miles in extent
or about one thirteenth of the entire
domain of the Free State The line
will be 1100 miles in length the long
est east and west road yet projected
in Africa
Fifty miles of it have been com
pleted from Lobito bay which affords
a fine harbor a little north of Benguel
la in the Portuguese colony of Ango
la Many hundred men are now build
ing the second section 200 miles long
which vill carry the road through the
mountains and up on the inland pla
teau It will then follow mainly the
water parting between the Congo and
Zambesi river systems a level region
offering few engineering problems and
not a single important river to cross
This large enterprise is eloquent
testimony to the faith of its projectors
in the great value of the Katanga
mining region This faith based upon
the results of seven years of investi
gation which Robert Williams and his
force of mining engineers have given
to this region In an interview the
other day Mr Williams said that they
had found a zone rich in copper ex
tending almost 200 miles northwest
and southeast nearly to the frontier
of Rhodesia
They had marked about 100 loca
tions on this line which promised re
markably rich returns and his com
pany intended to begin operations on
a large scale as soon as the railroad
should supply the essential
ONE 0 TrE 0LEANc5 LrNE
industries by spending home money
outside the jurisdiction In Parlia
ment the question was asked
In the reply France learned inci
dentally that the new locomotives
were of the type that draws the Atlan
tic City Express at the rate of nearly
70 miles an hour over a 60 mile run
That such a spurt however is done
in America only on specially prepared
high speed tracks and with a loading
gauge that permits the use of heavy
rolling stock was a detail not over
much dwelt on
One of the first results was a catas
trophe that permanently sickened two
French- lines the Orleans and the
Midi of excessive velocities Within
a year after the adoption of American
type locomotives the Sud Express be
tween Bayonne and Dax a 31 mile
spurt was averaging 57 miles per
hour and the 67 mile
break was negotiated at never
less than 63 miles per hourj
tion He had not found the gold pros
pects promising but the amount of
iron is enormous and coal has just
been discovered though it is too early
to say how important it will be in the
development of Katanga
This company however does not
hold nearly all the mining preserves
of that region and a pretty race is
now in progress to see who will be the
first to reach them The Cape to
Cairo railroad hopes to tap southern
Katanga in a year or two and the
Congo State has 3000 men building
the line around the last rapids that
impede steam transportation from the
Congo mouth to this territory The
Tanganyika concessions will however
have the shortest route from the sea
to the mining districts
Merely a Suggestion
Another bad boy has been made
good as the result of a surgical opera
tion Why not try it on politicians
and legislators
KNOWWHATYOUBUY
You Can See Quality and
Quantity in the Local
Stores
PAYS TO TRADE AT HOME
The Purchaser Must Take Mall Order
Houae Goods on Faith Keep
the Money of the Commu
nity at Home
When the consumor buys merchan
dise he Is interested in three things
quality quantity and price When he
goes into the store of his local mer
chant he sees the goods that he is to
pay for displayed before him he can
determine whether the quality is first
class and whether the quantity is all
that is claimed These two points
settled he should have a fair idea as
to whether the price asked is a fair
one or not
But how -is it when he attempts to
buy of the big mail order houses of the
cities The only guide he has to the
quality and quantity they are offering
Is what the catalogue says and the
catalogue is prepared with the one ob
ject In view of selling the goods
- When the consumer buys of his
local merchant and finds the goods he
has purchased were not as represent
ed he can promptly take them back
and receive his money When he buys
of the mail order house in the large
cities he has practically no recourse
but to take what he gets and look
pleasant at the results
It is cheap goods and short weight
that is making mail order house
profits They can buy but little if
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almost the exceptional order that lay
is conducted on tho theory that It IS
possible to take an inferior job and
foist it on a credulous people by
means of a reduced price and tho
honest reputation established by tho
oieritorlous original which It shame
lessly caricatures These methods
have been crowned with success solo
ly by reason of tho fact that mall or
der houses put more skill energy and
money into advertising than do tho
manufacturers to whom the American
people aro directly Indebted for tho
best vehicles on the face of the earth
Tho mail order business is tho
quack doctor of commerce It prom
ises much and guarantees nothing
The directions are always on tho In
side and you have to buy a non re
turnable packago before you can find
out what they are
A G Enderton of Walter Okla
writing to tho Shawnee Okla Union
Signal says
The mail order houses
are the worst offenders of the pure
food law that we have to deal with
They are tho people who use short
weight tin cans and every year tho
American public is cheated out of
thousands of dollars by this alone
I see where some mall
order houses offer paint at about what
good oil is worth Now does anyone
think that a mall order house can buy
good paint stuff cheaper than anyone
else
Now suppose you find out what
crude petroleum like what is pumped
out of oil wells cost Very cheap Is
it not That is the oil that is U3ed
and what about the paint stuff How
about Spanish whitening with just
enough white lead to stick it together
The question of prompt delivery is
another question which mall order
house patrons should consider It is
filled promptly The reason for this
y fill II 111 M I I IIMI s V Jv A
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Amm H fill I 9 SPHmJ - Bl
The mail order juggernaut is crushing the lives out of hundreds and thou
sands of local merchants and hundreds of towns and villages as well When
you send a dollar to the mail order house you are but operating the lever
that keeps this dath dealing machine on the move
any cheaper than your local merchant
can First quality standard merchan
dise is manufactured on a very nar
row margin of profit but the mail
order house can win and pay big divi
dends on enormous capital if they can
sell to the people an inferior quality
and short weight quantity of merchan
dise at the prices they ask Your
local merchant could do the same
thing but you would not buy the same
gooas or your local mercnant mat you
buy of the mail order house at an
equal price
Here is an item clipped from the
Parma Mich News which shows the
nefarious system of the mail order
concerns and how they victimize their
patrons
A farmer purchased two sacks of
binding twine of a large Chicago cata
logue house and upon its arrival this
morning a ball was unrolled and meas
ured with a ball of Plymouth twine
sold by local dealers when it was
found that the Chicago article was just
306 feet short of that sold at home
There being ten balls in a sack it will
be seen that the farmer lost 6120 feet
or over a mile of twine on two sacks
by not buying at home Then too
the mail order house product was of
an inferior quality being full of knots
and one farmer standing near during
the measuring process remarked that
It would never work on a binder Now
we wish to ask you does it pay to
trade at home If there is anyone
who is skeptical of this story just
call and we will show you Parma
Mich News
Bankrupt stock merchandise that
reliable jobbers would not handle be
cause of its poor quality the refuse
of the factories made over into cheap
merchandise These are the things
tie patrons of the mail order houses
are buying Here is an extract from
an article that appeared in the Sioux
Falls S D Leader
The mail order house selling vehi
cles by the catalogue route is more
than a pirate it is a turkey buzzard
It takes the freaks and failures that
have died for want of real merit and
tries to stifle legitimate business by
selling the embalmed remains at a re
duced price
The whole nefarious mail order sys
tem in so far as it relates to vehicles
delay is that they do not carry the
goods in stock and must purchase
them after your order is received In
Chicago for example no mail order
house will sell to any person living
within the city limits and the reason
for this is that these concerns pur
chase a large amount of the merchan
dise they are selling from the retail
stores of the city the proprietors of
which refuse to sell them the goods
except upon the condition that they
are not to sell to the people of the
city
Here is the wail of a mail order vic
tim taken from the columns of the
Crookston Minn Journal which ex
plains this point
Sir I want to register my kick
right here on catalogue houses and
their misleading methods I am
frank to acknowledge that I have been
duped to perfection The only differ
ence between me and the other vic
tims being that I am a little deeper
in and that I am willing to acknowl
edge the corn
To begin with last fall I with her
who is now my wife decided to pur
chase some stuff to furnish our new
home Accordingly we ordered all
our furnishings of a catalogue house
two weeks prior to our marriage
which we thought would be plenty of
time to get the goods around But
by the infernal planets let me tell vou
right here that all the correspondence
diplomacy appealing and pleading has
succeeded in landing only a kitchen
table and later a mirror from Pitts
burg
Our honeymoon has been a verv
dramatic experience cooking on an
old gas plate eating on a dry goods
box sleeping on the floor and borrow
ing a few necessary utensils of friends
and neighbors No more catalogue
goods for us We hope to get enough
more goods by April 1 to celebrate
all fools day in a fitting manner
A VICTIM
Mr Consumer it is to your advan
tage in many ways to buy honest
goods at honest prices of your honest
local merchant See what you are
buying Get what you are paying for
Keep the money of the community in
which you live at home and build ud
your town instead of tearing it down
for tne Denent or tne man order
houses of the big cities