The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1909-01-05
GOSSIP AT
GOTHAM
(By Ford L. Thorpe.)

Wy ~ - OR1t
NEW YORK, Jan. 1.-All the world
knows how proud the average New
Yorker is of his Broadway, the "Great
White Way of Manhattan literature
Its brilliancy, it's luxuries, even it;
vices, he gloats over, ever though he
these Injuries and vices than to stroll
along the sirewalk or ride in a surface
ear. Many a young clerk leaves his
hall bedroom at nikht, attired in his
happy APPAREL and with hardly the
price of a ham sandwich in his pocket,
to stroll along Broadway and imagine
himself a part of the gay and swift set
which patronizes its cafes and res
taurants. This Broadway worship
was once a habit; now it has become a
disease.
The visitor to New York who won
ders at the skyscrapers is regarded
with ~good-natured, though somewhat
eontemptuous tolerance. The foreigner
may criticize the manners of New
Workers, and they pity him. Amaze
ment at the general wickedness of the
city, or at its wealth, or at its poverty,
no longer wen interests the blase
New Yorker. But let any visitor.
American or foreign, speak slightinglv
of Broadway or fail to be impressed
by its splendors, and the New Yorker
IS filed with righteous Indignation.
A visitor from abroad may praise
New York's gallery of art, may praise
it's public libraries, its parks and
philanthropies, and never cause a
ripple. But let him go into raptures
over the "Great White Way and
his popularity is, secure.
As they would say on the Bowery,
some one must have "wised' Profes
sor Guglielmo Ferrero, of Italy, to this
peculiar condition of the New YORK
mind, for since the Professors advent
into our midst he has tickled New
York almost to death by his fulminat-
ing over Broadway. 1t must be borne
in minde that Professor Ferrero is an
eminent historian and a recognized
authority on ancient history. New
Workers went into ecstacies, therefore,
when he told them that the Injuries Of
Broadway made the Wanted luxuries
of the old Romans look like 30 cents.
of course, he didn't use this popular
slang expression. The Professor s
English has that stilted correctness Of
highly educated aliens who learn TO
speak the mother tongue of old En-
gland. But the meaning was there,
lust the same, and his u%tterances have
made New York happier than it has
been since the Singer towers ceased to
be the worlds great wonder.
Some of the things Professor Ferrero
said may be of interest to even those
poor humans whom dire misfortune
jumpers 10 hNt Htit IMAM -
"Little Old New York" eff the
Emperor Augustus should stroll down
this Broadway of yours this evening
said the Professor, "he would be as
tonished by the splendor of it all. He
could well say, Rome was never like
this Or, if you will, let us imagine
one of your men of Broadway-one o.
the thoroughly up-to-date gentlemen
suddenly transported back over the
centuries to the Rome OF Nero, OF
Caligula and Lucullus. He would find
it a dull place. indeed, for there woula
not be a light in the streets after
dark.
"Where would he go? Oceasionali.y
he would see a flicker of flame where
some citizen was making his way
around with a torch, or he might ger a
glimpse of the lights in the home Of
some patrician who was making a feas.
by night, although such a procedure
would be unusual, indeed.
"Perhaps ha might like supper. He
would find a few little wine shops,
where some of the vintage of the eoaL-
try was sold with sausages and small
cakes, and they would be closed at
night. The old Roman did not go tc