Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1912-02-19
ACTUAL FACTS
BEAT ROMANCE
Readable Melange of tn e
Metropolis Including the
No Heat, No Rent, Idea
Which Has Just Been
Upheld by Courts

NEW YORK. Feb. lS-New York
theatre goers apparently wish their
plays To transport them far from the
metropolis these days. Anything tN-
otic is received with acclaim Two
rival Broadway playhouses. a few
blocks apart. offer plays representing
scenes from the Arabian Nights and
these are playing To- fun capacity at
an performances. Enthusiastic aud
fences follow keenly the animated
arabesques of caiiphs and clowns,
beSgars transformed into wealthy
mobiles, ragged revenge stalking its
prey. stabbingS and droWnings. lovers
smuggled into harems. and all the
thousand and one lively mischanccs
and grotesqueries Of the romantic
tale. The volatile New Yorker has
rushed to this romantic atmosphere
to escape the prosaic facts of modern
urban life But probably only To thc
stolid metropolitan is the metropolis
prosaiC. As fact the citys news
Of u single day contains more strange
romantic incidents than the widest
oriental extravaganza. Were Charles
Dickens. whose centenary Father
KnickerbOcker recently observed alive.
and writing in New York instead Of
London. today. he would unquestion-
ably rouse the great body of New
Workers to this constant outpourinS of
romance at their very doors. Little
glimpses of this romance peer out
Of the columns Of the newspapers. A
recent day produced the following
items. A multimillionsire died iutes-
tate and one Of his nephcWS. who
was To receive two and q half mill
lions. was discovered living i'm dcsti-
tuition in a mean tenement He had
just borrowed u quarter from ~ neigh
bor and his wife was in the work
house 4 lively millionaire seventy
four years old. an athlete and a jiu-
jitsu expert. was found to have mar
ried a girl Of twenty \ clerk who
had his salary raised Immediately
went home and hanged himself. y
life insurance COMPANY discovered
that d man supposed To have died
fourteen years ago. AT which time
the company paid his wife a policy
Of $3.50 on his life. was still alive.
The man had been in the employ of
the company during the fourteen
years and lived just "a few doors from
its main office. \ wealthy Yukon
miner came to town. engaged 4 suite
at a smart Broadway hotel. washed
his only undershTt. q red flannel af-
fair. and hung it out of the window
to dry. So that several thousand per
sons gathered TO stare and traffic was
blocked. At book sale a bihlio-
phile paid S3.S00 for tiny pamphlet
containing Shakespelre's Venus and
Adonis." This amounted to S165 a
page. or $500 a cubic inch. These !
were but few items picked at |
random from the news columns.
The jewellers Exchange Building |
one of the oldest structures in New
York in the heart Of the financial dis !
trict. is at last to be torn down to |
make WAY for skyscraper. The /
place dates from 1850. 1t is really /
a group of buildings constructed about /
rear courtyard. In the old days |
ii was occupied by lawyers offices /
but the attorneys moved out or died |
off one by one and jewelry trades |
moved in. Aaron Burr had an office |
there. about 1872, but the roomy fire
place where he is said To have hre,ved |
a famous hot punch has long since
vanished. Ii is also said that the /
place. was once hotel and that /
Washington spent night in one of
the rooms. There was. at that time,
a handsome fountain playing in the
court and bridges across it connect
pd tn. front and raar buiidingS atpr
the original james Gordon Bennett
was tenant and was eVicted for
failure to pay his rent. For time
one of the cellar vaults was occu-
pied by a Scotchman known as Lord
Palmerston' who sold q famous brew
Of ale and still more famous mutton
pies.
The laws against carrying revolvers
i'm New York have recently been |
strengthened and now the police de-
partment and the magistrates have
taken measures which increase the
difficulty of pawning ones watch.
This is the result of the decree that
anyone who has been robbed and sees
the stolen property in a pawn shop
may get a policeman, go with him
to the pawnbrokers and demand the
property. If the Dawnbroker refuses
To restore il. the policeman viii ar
rest him on charge Of receiving
stolen property. or course this has
made the pawnbrokers exceedingly
wary, and temporarily impecunous
persons who desire to leave their