Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-21
HAVOC WITH SKIRTS
Plays Wind About the Big
Flatiron Building.
cops" ARE KEPT BUSY
DIRECTING MALE TOURISTS TO
THE sKYscR.APER.
Club Men Glad Of Earl of Yarmouth's
Good Fortune-A New Debt
Collecting Device.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

NEW YORK, February 20, 1908.
Say. how do you get to the F1atiron
builddngT' IL now the first question sub
mftted to cops on duty ut the ferries and
railroad stations by male tourists making
their first visit to New York. The fame Of
the Fiatiron building has already pene-
trafed to the remotest sections Of the land
and the March winds are yet to come. II
is expected that when Boreas gets real busy
during the month Of March whole bat
fafions OF policemen viii have to be strung
around the Flatiron building to move on,
youse," the lettering male pedestrians, and
already some Of the lessees Of buildings the
windows OF which command views Of the
Flatfron building are said to be preparing
to rent their windows during the ides of
March. The hotels situated across the way
from the Flatiron building have rented all
OF their rooms the windows of which at
ford view of the converging streets upon
which the famous structure is built-to
needless to add
In the meantime the merchants whose
places OF business are lowered over by the
tiatiron building are still protesting flu
rfously, IL fruitlessly. Their complaints are
various. Not alone, they moan, are their
plate glass windows in constant jeopardy
owing to the cycionic rushes of ether
caused by the structural peculiarities Of
the raZor-like Flatiron building but far
worse, their male clerks have been dis
gracefully neglecting their duties since the
completion Of the FYatiron building-Wild
horses. 1t seems, would be required to drag
them away from the front windows of the
stores In which they are employed! How
ever, the agents of Office buildings across
the way from the Flatiron building are
happy for they have been enabled to raise
the rentals of the offices looking upon the
40 MOI Nho INF
main fnconsoIable.
After while, they say, when all Of the
women find out about the Flatiron building
neighborhood and its incessant deyelop-
ment of eccentric whiriwinds and ambient
tangentS and aerial eddies-all of them cal
culated to induce feminine modification
even on days comparatively mild-why say
the merchants, the women will then begin
to shun the vicinage of the Flatiron building
altogether, and the trade of the stores
clustered around the structure will go to
pot.
The Law Can't Touch It.
However. 1t seems likely that the struc-
ture will stand just as 1t. is for several
generations to come. The law can't touch
it. The owners of the building laugh at the
surrounding merchants suggestion that a
few stories be shaved from the top Of the
structure for the purpose Of amending the
buildings extraordinary wind-manufactur-
Ing capabilities.
$50 you don't like the wind around our
bulldlng, eh! the owners of the Flatiron
say. In essence, to the complaining mer-
chants. wei, swear out warrant against
the wind. appear IN court against the wind
get out an Injunction against the wind;
perpetual one, Il possible. and have the
wind put under bonds to keep the peace, and
-er-not modest lady pedestrians. AS for
us. we complied with the law in putting I'D
the building-give US a rest. Pinch the
wind"
Are the women of New York stunning
the neighborhood OF the F1atiron building,
even on the gustest days? No! 1t may be
because good many Of them do not read
the newspapers-it must be something. But
they career by the Flatiron buiIding-more
than half propelled, as often as not, by the
wind-ln droves. just as they. have been
ballooning by the building ever since 1T
was completed. Moreover, a woman visit
Ing New York the other day commented
upon what she called the remarkable pre-
paredness of the women, especially the
pretty ones. who zephyr past the Flatiron
building.
The woman visiting New York looked
upon this preparedness as queer, to say the
least. and she shook her head over 1t quite
lot However. this Is a feature of the
subject that rightly belongs to the fashion
page Of The Star.
Cops Have Troubles of Their Own.
The gigantic cops stationed around the
tdtuoA puAulIS arc III Tue IueduGIu6 U4V-
ing troubles OF their own. A great many
prosperous-looking and wen-dressed men
absolutely decline to "G'wan" when COM
manded to do so by the cops. They feel
that they have a right to sun themselves in
front Of the hotels--of which, nevertheless
only few Of them are guests-across the
way from the F1atiron bui,ding-and IL the
around that building. oddly affecting the
raiment Of the women who fall into the
aerial maelstrom. can they. the loiterers.
help It? They refuse to 'Gwan." They
won't &c wan and many of them tell the
cops so fatty. and defy arrest This puts
it up to the policemen. For when several
men who were arrested for lettering in
the neighborhood of the Fiatiron building
were taken before magistrates the magis-
trates discharged them from custody out of
hand and upbraided and admonished the
cops for their oflciousness in arresting men
who were of obvious responsibility and who
had committed no infractfons Of the law.
Consequently the male citizen now feels
that he can defy with impunity the 'Gwan,
youse." of the cops stationed around the
Flatiron building.
Just now the trousered strolIers Of Broad
way and 9Th avenue are in state Of min
gled apprehension and gloom because there
Is some talk on the part of the city officials
OF compelling the owners of the Flatiron
building to construct a tail steel screen all
around the structure. They may take heart,
however. for the best lawyers in town I'M
eouiyocally state that the buildings own
ers can't be forced to construct anything of
the sort.
In little notion store over on 7th avenue
near 2sd street one of the windows is COM
pletely stacked up with ornate red-striped
hose for women. A big sign IN the middle
of the display Of CANDY hosiery reads thus:
eff you're going to walk-arourd the Flat
Iron how about these?-oniy sixteen
cGntst'
Earl Of Yarmouth's Good Fortune.
A large number Of club men over here,
and some others besides who have met the
young man. are rather glad that the Earl
of Yarmouth has won the all-around con-
sent of the family to his marriage to Miss
Thaw of Pfttsburg. When he was here
Yarmouth proved himself the most likabfe
of all of the young English noblemen who
have come to this country In recent years.
Careful Investigation on the part OF num-
Der OF interested New Workers disclosed the
fact that. despite some yarns to the con-
trary Yarmouth had left no disreputable
record whatever behind him in the old
country and his conduct over here was as
suredly manly and square from every point
of view He tried the theatrical business
for while and then threw 1t up because
to use his own words. Pm stick on the
stage and would continue to make a hash
of 1t IL tried for Thousand years" Then
h a