Gilded Age Vaudeville

There is just enough of a touch of Bohemianism in it to make it a sort of lark to go, and, of course, this season it has been a pleasant novelty. But New-York Women are not Bohemians very much, after all, and, with all their alleged extravagances of conduct, there is in the best and most of them a strain of the old Puritan stock that is sure to assert itself.
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“Is the Vaudeville really liked by women? Now that is a question. I haven't heard a woman say she didn't like it; I've heard lots of them explain their going, though, on the ground that it is better if their husbands and brothers want the diversions of a variety show after the theatre that they should go along.

“Yes, I think the women like it, if it is kept where it is now. There is just enough of a touch of Bohemianism in it to make it a sort of lark to go, and, of course, this season it has been a pleasant novelty. But New-York Women are not Bohemians very much, after all, and, with all their alleged extravagances of conduct, there is in the best and most of them a strain of the old Puritan stock that is sure to assert itself. 

It crops out in the Sunday night card parties– there is plenty of card playing Sunday nights in many houses in New-York where, perhaps, it is least suspected– but the women don't like it; some of them won't have it. But, yes, concludingly, “I think we like the vaudeville.”– New York Times, 1893

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