Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-02

Now, that's mighty thoughtful re-
piled the newspaper man, and the UNIFORM
did another departure. purring sas con-
tentedy as a Maltese cat.
Then No. 6 steamed in. and for the next
twenty or twenty-five minutes the news
Every attache of the station had his
lamps glued on him all the time. and ne
began to feel as prominent as the late n;
H. Hartman and John Alexander rolled
Seventeen people in uniform stood around
looking as though they'd like to suggest
something if they dared, and hnaliy one
of them drifted up, real tremo1y around
the chin and gave q preliminary cough.
beg pardon. sir; excuse me for men.
tioning 1t, and I'm sorry to disturb you.
he said. but we've held No. five min
utes for you, and if you could come now,
II guess 1 won't go tonight said the
newspaper man. suppressing violent de-
sire to hit somebody with baggage
truck The man in uniform, after open
ing and closing his mouth half dozen
times, in the manner of dying shad.
managed to pull the getaway gong, and
No. 9 pulled out. Then the newspaper
man met his wife and went home. study
ing the initials in his cardcase and Won
dering whether he'd better see a doctor
in the morning. And ever since he has
been wondering and Fostering and trying
to figure out whether everybody at the
he looks like some big gun Of the rail-
road world, or whether he has been de-
veloping a taste for lemons. And How
with red pepper. Just how or why the
toughs should be able to extract such in
tense glee from the spectacle Of a lot of
people engaged in sneezing is one of those
things that easily battle the under
signed. 1t wouldn't be 80 bad If the
damage done by the scattering Of red
pepper in the cars were confined to the
sneezing, But 1t isn't. The red pepper
gets into the eyes Of people and forces
them to keep to dark rooms sometimes
for weeks A police captain of Coney
Island told me a while ago that he knew
of three persons. two women and one
man, whose eyesight had been perma-
nently ruined by red pepper tossed around
in Coney Island surface cars during last
summer. These victims happened to be
got gobs of the inflaming powder in their
eyes. Moreover. the red pepper gets into
the threats of people riding In the cars.
brings on bad and sometimes dangerous
coughing spells, especially when there
are persons riding in the cars who are
predisposed to tuberculosis or other weak
nesses Of the lungs. The sufferings of the
hay fever victims in New York cars dur
ing the past week. with nearly all OF the
cars fairly reeking with red pepper, have
been quite beyond description. The only
consolation in connection with this red
pepper business is that the throwers of 1t
occasionally get the worst of their
funny activity themselves. An Italian
American bully-and the second genera
ton of Italians, let it be plainly under
stood. now make up the toughest class In
all New York-who was about to begin TO
cast the contents of paper bag full of
red pepper into Sd avenue l. train the
other afternoon was detected by plain
clothes cop just as he was about to chuck
the first handful. The cop threw up the
arm Of the tough, and all of the contents
of the fistful of red pepper went smack
dab into the staring eyes OF the ltahano
cut-up The cop then took him off the
car and chucked him into an ambulance
for Bellevue Hospital. where 1t was said
that maybe there was about one chance
In twenty that the fellows eyesight might
be saved When Commissioners Baker.
the head of the police department. heard
about this. eve a blamed good notion
to promote that cop to lieutenancy,
said he. And he meant it. and he had
right to mean it.
The plain truth is that New York has
been practically in control OF mobs during
all Of this celebration. and 1t has been I'M
safe for women to be on the streets at all,
even when accompanied by escorts. The
DULLES Of this town invariably travel In
for any single escort in nineteen cases out
of twenty. The toughs have stopped at
nothing. In cars a gang of them, stand
ing in the aisles and knowing themselves
to be entirely safe by reason OF their
numbers, the outrages they have perpe-
trated, particularly upon women. have
been incredibly vicious. Grabbing the
feathers or other ornaments from women's
hats has been one of their milder forms
of enjoyment. Another scheme from
which they've extracted no end Of larks
has been to get furtive clutch on the
lace collars around womens necks and
then, with a sudden startling yank. tear
the collars from the fastenings, not infre-
quently gashing the women's necks with
the pins attached to the collars. l am
fain to state that q woman who would ex-
hibit the gleeful carnival spirit after
having thing Of this sort inflicted upon
her would be filter for halo than for
celebration.
So don't take 1t to heart. good neigh
bors, IL you missed the Hudson-F'ulton
celebration. There have been some things
worth seeing, but you would have had to
take lot of chances in seeing them.
CLARENCE L. CULLEN.