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

invented over here. At first the ticker
was sufficiently harmless affair. even II
1t did furnish the tougEs with an oDpor-
tunity to indulge in all sorts of fresh
nesses with decent folk. Originally the
"tickler' was sort of q miniature
feather duster: a few feathers fastened to
the end of a short handle.
The scheme Of the manipulators of the
ticker" was to slip up behind people in
tent upon minding their own business
women, mostly-and jab the tickling
feathers into their ears. Really, this sort
of thing never was what you might call
screechingly funny. 1t was pretty raw
comedy, at the best. But the subdued
human beings over here stood for it be-
cause they knew no other course to pur-
sue that looked as II it might be success
full. New Workers hardly ever resent any
sort of an outrage, you know. Nearly all
of the worlds human sheep are massed
on Manhattan Island.
Last year. however. a new form Of the
"tickler," or at least new edition Of 1t,
made its appearance at the Coney Island
Mardi Gras, and the new edition is the
"tickler'' now in general use on occasions
of Mania ttan festivity. The old-fashion-
at which it was jabbed, you see. and SO it
had to be altered. The "tickler" now has
a pin, with the sharp end pointing out
ward, embedded among the feathers. The
feathers still are used to tickle the ears
and necks of pedestrians caught in the
mobs. But the pin Is employed to
tickle" other portions of the anatomies
Of men and women caught in the New
York crowds.
When the man or woman jumps sud
the pressure Of the pin-pointed ''tickler,"
why, the wielders Of that 'fun-makng'' i'm
plement are so delighted that they'd just
love to lie down on the pavement and roll
and wallow In their esctasy If there were
only rolling and wallOwing ROOM In
New York 1t is the thing for victims of
the "tickler" to assume a grin, even IL
they have it not; to smile wanly. that is
to say. even while they're rubbing the
pin-punctured place and pretend that
they take it all in the carnival spirit
The out-of- towners here present during
the past week, however, have been quite
unable to perceive why they should clap
their hands with glee and jump around
a sharp pin thrust viciously into the more
or less vulnerable and sensitive portions of
their anatomy. and so they've resented
the 'tickler" business. Has their resent
ment availed them anything? 1t has. If
they've been huge, raw-boned, muscular
individuals of a type that would be able
to give a correct account of itself even
in a Wisconsin lumber camp. A few
husky out-oftowners. embittered by the
impact of the pin-pointed ticker" have
turned upon the "tickler' wielders and
punched and jabbed the daylights out of
them. Mostly, however, the resenters of
the ticker treatment have been knock
ed galley west. with their screaming and
hysterical women looking on with agony.
by quickly assembling mobs of foreignish
toughs keen to see and to participate in
the discontinue of the "Rubes."
Another enormously funny" scheme.
from the viewpoint Of the "merrymakers"
of this town, is the scattering about of
red pepper in the surface cars and the l.
and subway trains. 1t is not wide of the
mark to say that at least nine-tenths of
all the cars running in all Greater New
York during the mast week have reeked