Public Ledger

Don Platt in Chicago—Women and Side-Saddles.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

"Do you see that broad-shouldered man, with black, mutton-chop whiskers on a face that would be handsome but for its assurance?"

"Certainly."

"Well, he is famed for his affairs with women. It seems to be his profession, for he is continually the hero of some noted adventure. What bothers one is the why he should be so successful. A fellow asked him once, and he said the secret was to be found in the fact that he lived in a first-class hotel and carried a side-saddle in his trunk."

"What in the old scratch has a side-saddle to do with it?"

"Well, I don't know. But the gay Lothario is a graceful horseman, and few fast women about first-class hotels can resist a ride on horseback."

"Well, that is the oddest view of female human nature I ever encountered. I have known women ruined through fine clothes, and blasted by diamonds, but a side-saddle is a new fact and a new feature."

"Certainly, and therefore to be entertained. The chap who drew out the secret gave me some other talk of this female-killer. He said that in every first-class hotel were certain fast females addicted to gay apparel and the public piano. He said that fellow, who was noted for his success, could win his way through a few songs, and complete his triumph through a ride on horseback."

"How disgusting."

"Very. Don't you wish you had a good tenor voice and a side-saddle?"

"Not if the court knows herself. There is nothing so beastly disgusting as a professional deceiver. One may have, through accident, his little affair, and romantic secrecy gilds the sin. But to go prowling about with a tenor voice, like a tom-cat in a gutter, is vile."

"Korrect."

The Marie Antoinette slipper, high heel, square toe and jeweled buckle, is a great favorite. The paths of fashionable life will be more "slippery" now than ever.