Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-10-17
Stray Topics from
 LittleOld New York

NEW YORK, October 16.-Nothing has puzzled the people of New York for many years as much as the statue of "Purity" now standing at the upper end of Times square. What has purity to do with New York, anywayf is the general comment and so far nobody has been able satisfactorily to answer that question. There is something mysterious about that statue which looks so shock inely out of place where it is. Nobody seems to know with any degree of cer- tainty who is responsible for the plaster figure and why it was erected in Times square. It seems to be the generally accepted theory that the heroic-sized feminine figure represents Purity, v but there is nothing to prove the cor reetness of that theory. It has been stated on somebody's authority that the statue was intended to form part of the scheme of decoration of Times squ'a during the Hudson Fulton celebration, but could not be finished in time. That may be so, but the next question is, what is to become of the mysterious statuef It has been suggested to place the figure in front of Tammany hall, so that the Tammanyites may learn what Purity looks like.
 The Hudson Fulton celebration which brought several million visitors to New York was undoubtedly a great success, but everybody seems to be glad it is all over. Now, that the excitement has died out, the citizens are beginning to realize what a tremendous thing that celebra- ton was. It is generally admitted, even by those who were the loudest in con demning the grafting propensities of the police force, that too much credit can not be given to the metropolitan police for the rnasterly manner in which 1t han dled the enormous crowds during the fes' tiyal week. Police Commissioner Baker has been eulogized and patted on the back by everybody from the mayor down, but nobody ever thought of giv- ing even the slightest share of credit to former Commissioner Bingham, although the latter probably had more to do with the effective service of the police force than any other individual in New York
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 The race of hayseeds of the hoary and antediluyian kind is evidently not yet extinct. Every now and then some ru- ral visitor of that kind tries to help the final extinction of his species by blowing out the gas in his room, but there are always some others left to repeat the trick. One of these jays visited the city the other day. He took in the sights of the city in the morning and in the afternoon wrote long letter of a de scriptive nature to his folks up in Maine state. When he had finished his letter he inquired at the desk in his hotel where he might find the postoffice. The clerk informed him that it was not nee essary for him to go to the postoffice, as there were mail boxes provided for that purpose. MT. Rube left the hotel to look for one of "those goldarned new-fan gled contraptions. He passed several but did not recognize them as mai boxes. Finally he stopped a boy and asked him. The boy, a typical East side gamin, smelled the odor of hay and pointing to fire alarm box on the cor ner, withdrew safe distance to watcf the outcome. The old man fumbled witf the alarm box until he got it open anc was still busy with looking for place to drop his letter in, when the fire en zines and hook-and- ladder trucks ar