Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-04
speoIai Correspondencn Of rhe Head.

suits are rented out over on the east
side for the weddings and the "oivic
balls" A whole lot Of the people who
were at the two auto shows last night
one at Madison Square garden and
the other just around the corner at
the Sixty-ninth Regiment armory-
came down town on the subway, but
they dressed the part just the same
goggles for the gentlemen and long
wells with happy ends for the women.
The limitations In the rented auto tog-
gerry had the professional line of talk
down pretty pat themselves. They
knew the Christian or given names OF
all the little steel springs and brass
contraptions that look like the works
out of a dollar watch and cost as much
q piece as a building lot in Yonkers,
The two shows run to extensive decor
ations and orchestras and uniformed
attendants-the garden, In particular,
never looked so attractive as It does
now with its sky-blue ceiling and the
balconies rising one on the other like
double terraces. Every imaginable de-
vice for the comfort of the man who
owns the auto and his man servant
and his maid servant, and his wife,
and his neighbor's wife: is on display
Literary Browsing
"Come in and browse around" is the
cordial invitation outside a little book
store which deals in both new and Sec
ond-hand books. The city contains q
great number Of thes little shops, and
they all have many readers and
"browsers," although the purchasers
probably would not number SO many.
The downtown district is especially
prolific in little book stores, and the
noon hour will find every one of them
crowded. Many a business man and
woman will hurry through a quick
lunch and then spend half an hour of
their midday time looking over long
counter of old-tme favorite novels or
the modern best sellers.
Penny Arcades and Children
1t has been observed here lately that
the moving pictures in the penny ar
cades" are growing much spicier and
that a large proportion of young chill
dren are patronizing these shows. Be-
sides suggestive pictures such scenes
as "The Hanging of Mrs. Rogers"
"The Murder in Toby's Saloon" ETC.,
are exhibited. The police are likely to
take a hand il complaints continue to
come in from school teachers. The pro-
moters of the "arcades'' simply get the
pictures which will attract the largest
patronage, and the tendency therefore
is to keep close to the edge of the law
A Hope for Single Men
A well known citizen today said:
MY eyes beheld sight yesterday that
did them good, and that opens a new
avenue of cheerfulness before me as
single man, who has been at the mercy
Of chance up to the present time saw
passing through the streets a laundry
wagon upon which We're the words,
a,.I tsaer of n "
While there was no public demonstra-
ton apparent at the time. and perhaps
because the idea is as yet a novelty, 1
expect that the time will soon come
when a wagon of this character will be
practically mobbed by wifeless and sis
terless citizens, seeking to force their
bundles of laundry upon the enterpris-
ing concern"
A Potpourri Of Races
A school down in the Egyptian quar-
ter with 600 pupils has only sixty of
American birth, ninety-two are Irish
and 20 per cent are Syrians.
Mrs. ThaW Has Double
The complaints recently made by
Mrs. Harry Kendall Thaw against the
use of her photographs for advertising
purposes bring out the fact that Mrs.
Thaw has double whose fame for
a beauty is hardly less than that Of the
former Evelyn Florence Nesbit. Mrs.
Thaw's double Is Rhea Sonson, the girl
with the wonderful hair, now appearing
in 1.-THE Isle of Spice" company in
Plttsburg. 1t is not a press agent,
but Miss Sonson's father who calls
attention to the fact. Rhea and Miss
Nesbit were often mistaken for each
other" said Mr.. Sonson. particularly
at Atlantic City, where Miss Nesbit
was a frequent visitor and where Rhea
spent most of her summers. Many a
time on the board walk she was greeted
as Florence or Miss Nesbit.' The re-
semblance is really extraordinary.
Rhea's hair is darker and more luxuri-
ant, but in figure, feature and man
ner the two are Identical. Indeed, her
photographs are often mistaken for
those of Mrs. Thaw." Mr.. Sonson is a
travelling salesman.
Vampire Sheets Banished
During the past few months half
dozen publications pretending to repre-
sent special interests have been put out
of business in New York. Two vampire
sheets calling themselves financial
papers, two society papers, one sand
bagging political enterprise and one
representing itself as an organ for
newspaper writer's have all fallen De-
fore the white light of publicity. They
were all alike in the main point. They
used printers ink for blackmailing pur
poses. The basis Of operations is that
every man has one or two chapters in
his life which he would prefer to keep
from the public. They may not be, and
probably are not criminals; they may
not even be shameful; but, so the
blackmailer reckons. they are such that
the man would rather give up money
rather than see them published. Con-
fronted with such q proposition, the
person blackmailed has his choice of
two courses. He may put his neck in
the yoke Of blackmail and enter upon
the thorny path which leads to misery
and ignoble servitude; or he may call
up the district attorney on the tele-
phone and so invoke the aid Of the law.
OF the hundreds of persons approached
during the past few years only two had
the nerve to come out I'm the open. The
rest paid up and now they are suffer-
ing the penalty of their cowardice.
Gum-Shoe Flremen
The fire department of New York puts
on gum shoes when 1t goes to a hos