Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Mistresses -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
The walk down Broadway, then as now, was one of the remarkable features
of the city. There gathered, before the matinée and afterwards, not
only all the pretty women who love a showy parade, but the men who love
to gaze upon and admire them. It was a very imposing procession of
pretty faces and fine clothes. Women appeared in their very best hats,
shoes, and gloves, and walked arm in arm on their way to the fine shops
or theatres strung along from Fourteenth to Thirty-fourth Streets.
Equally the men paraded with the very latest they could afford. A
tailor might have secured hints on suit measurements, a shoemaker on
proper lasts and colours, a hatter on hats. It was literally true that
if a lover of fine clothes secured a new suit, it was sure to have its
first airing on Broadway. So true and well understood was this fact,
that several years later a popular song, detailing this and other facts
concerning the afternoon parade on matinée days, and entitled “What
Right Has He on Broadway?” was published, and had quite a vogue about
the music-halls of the city.
In all her stay in the city, Carrie had never heard of this showy
parade; had never even been on Broadway when it was taking place. On
the other hand, it was a familiar thing to Mrs. Vance, who not only
knew of it as an entity, but had often been in it, going purposely to
see and be seen, to create a stir with her beauty and dispel any
tendency to fall short in dressiness by contrasting herself with the
beauty and fashion of the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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