The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-15
HALF SHOD on BROADWAY.
4 Tragedy or . Car slot, . French Heel
and q Violin Case.

What might have been a woful tragedy
was narrowly averted in Herald Square
yesterday forenoon when q girl with .
violin case and a kangaroo walk had the
fo~rethought not to get her French heel
caught in the Thirty-fourth street line
trolley track until after she had put on a
new pair Of isle thread stockings. When
she tried to pull the heel free the foot came
out Of the low shoe. How close she had
come TO a tragedy was seen when. as Q car
whizzed by and squashed b shoe, the
girl gazed with blanched face at her per-
fectly ~stockinged toe and gssped with
relief:
Thank God, this didn't happen yester-
dayl"
But far be It from the Broadway crowd
TO let the incident close there. The crowd
!, grasped at once that a well dressed girl
standing on one foot like a stork in tho
middle Of Herald Square, with only one shoe
and a violin case, offered possibilities
and closed in like a grove of rubber plants.
The girl and her violin case had got per-
mission from the traffic squad to cross the
square without going through the usual
formality of first running three times
around the traffic ropes, climbing over the
Greeley and then going back
downtown again. and was kangarooing
along when, as she reached the track, some
body threw out the anchor and she stopped
as If struck with an idea. The cop sug-
gested that she move on before she broke
some auto lamps against herself. The
girl had the same idea, but her heel was
inserted in the car track.
There was a sudden banging OF a trolley
car bell. The girl shrieked, and as the car
- - 1900 ehAvV a.
persons started to gallop to her assistance
the girl grabbed herself and the violin case
and with a mighty pull was free. Tn
fortunately, however, instead OF the shoe
breaking away her foot slipped out OF the
shoe. She hoped nimbly forward, the
shoeless foot concealed some place or other:
and a second or two later the car passed
and the shoe was put out of business.
Then, as the rubber trees began 10 spring
up, the girl stood swaying unsteadlly
on one pin for a moment Suddenly she ~
out, a hop at a time, and her ewes we're fixed
SO fondly on the swinging doors of a depart
ment store only a few feet away that she
didn't notice the curb and disaster before
her. The remaining heel passed the time
Of day with the curb in her wild leap to
the sidewalk and the hopper went down.
The violin case slammed to the pavement
and as the lid flew open its contents futtered
among the rubber grove. There was q
picture of kyrle Bellew in a cardboard
frame with forget -me-nots painted on it:
a curling iron, the punctured stockings Of
the day before, various lace and muslin
affairs, a copy of The Yonkers Salesman,
and a letter from home.
Don't you dare" she cried IA obliging
young men tried 70 help her gather her
treasures. She stuffed them back into the
improvised travelling bag as hurriedly as
it is possible TO chase things when only
one leg is on the job. But she slammed
the lid Of the violin case at last, and in three
hops was inside the lobby OF the depart
ment store, where she promptly tainted.
The cop had almost reached In his breast
pocket for a restorative when he caught
himself in time and yelled for water in
stead. The water arrived in buckets, and
while everybody shouted directions the
restorers turned 70 the work in hand 80
vigorously that the girl finally had TO swim
out TO consciousness to escape drowning.
Its awful Awful!D she sputtered in
anguish as she came up for the third time.
Her name, it was learned by divers, was
fatally drowned, also her residence, n it
was nobody's business, anyways therel
And again balancing herself undecidedly
she watched her chance at the swinging
doors and dived into the shoe department.