The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-06
THE WEEKS TALK
IN NEW YORK CITY
Barbara Observance of New
Years Eve in the Metropolis
THE OLD YEARS RECORD
Prosecution of the Trusts and the In
crease in Wages-The AdamIess
Hotel a FaIure-Women
Robbers.
THE OLD YEARS RECORD
BY sEwELL HAeoARD.

New York, January 5.-Every year New
York manner of observing New Years
eve becomes more barbaric. The custom
of our forefathers to watch out the old
year and watch in the new with some-
thing of the solemnity of that most sol
emn service. a Quaker meeting. has de-
generated into a night of revelry.
There are two distinctive features to
the celebration if it may be dignifed by
that name. They are the tin horn and
the wine battle. Crowds of young hood
lums and some old ones and some in
pettcoats-arm themselves with horns
and parade the streets or rather rush
them.
They make all the noise they can and
when that fails to furnish the desired
amount of excitement they form flying
football wedges and dash through the
phalanxes of humanity. bowling over the
unfortunGtes that get in their way. Other
weapons of torture besides the horn are
the ticklers" and the 'rattlers" The
ticker is particularly atrocous i'm
strument The possessor of it pokes 1t
in the neck-and in many cases in the
eye of the unsuspecting victim. The
rattler is perhaps the worst enemy of
nerves ever invented
While the streets are being made dan
gerous for women and children and sleep
impossible for those who stay at home,
the class that spends money and heaps
of it for its pleasure is celebrating in the
hotels and restaurants. To set table
in prominent restaurant on New Years
eve one must reserve it months in ad-
vance. Many persons reserve them a year
in advance-the same table year after
year. In these restaurants the "W. o."
sign is hung up at clock in the eve
ming and not taken down until far into
the morning. wv o." means that wine
only is sold. It costs $40 and sometimes
$50 to reserve a table and as for the
tips to walters 81 is the least amount ac-
cepted, and S. is considered much better
FORM
The restaurant proprietors stand for
most any sort of goings-on, and by
o'clock in the morning it's a very peculiar
person that is still out from under the
influence. There is always an enthusiasts
tic chap who desires to make a speech
from the table and he do it if he's
a good customer. And it's a poorly pat
ronized 10 ster palace that hasn't wo-
man patron who'll mount a table and
sing ca a greeting to the infant year.
The millionaires get rid of their ex-
cess of enthusiasm at the Waldorf the
Astor, Delmonico's, Sherry's and a few
other places of equal grandeur. Usually
they are surrounded by lot of plain
folk who are willing to pay a good round
sum once year to bask in the sunsilght
of Mr.. and Mrs. Moneybags, though Mrs.
Moneybags Is usually represented on such
occasions by a substitute.
| The ingenious suggestion was made a
| few years ago that the celebrities who
attend the opera and the Horse Show
should wear numbers in order that they
might be the more readily identified by
| the curious nobodies. Since the great res
| taurants on New Years eve must be
added to the opera and the Horse Show
| as places to which people go to see and
be seen the proprietors of the cafes and
hostelries might adopt this suggestion.
On New Years eve it would have been
a distinct convenience to those who had
secured tables If the distinguished per-
If each table of notables had been num-
| bered on a standard ordinary humble
| persons would only have had to look
| at a printed list to assure themselves
| that the proprietors had not obtained their
money under false pretenses. 1t Is too
much to expect that our well known peo-
pie can be identified by their portraits.
| Most of them are VIGOROUSLY careless in
keeping their pictures up to date.
The Old Years Record.
| One of the interesting features of the
history of 1906 is the prosecution of