The Washington herald., 1914-09-07
THE GREAT WHITE WAY
By o. o. M'INTYRE.

specisl Corrsspondent to the Washington HsraId.
New York. Sept. 6.-Owen Davis, who
tried manfully TO quit writing melo-
dramas, has fallen from grace again
Broadway watched his struggles to out
live his days of Nellie the Beautiful
Cloak Model" Chinatown Charlie"
Confessions OF a Wife" etc. and was
pleased when he put across The Family
Cupboard" which ran for many months
at one Of the better class theaters.
Davis this time has been lured by the
moving picture people who have Of
fered him such an enormous price for
some Of his thriIIers that there was
nothing else he could do, for as a fray
ed Wall Street broker said the other
day "a quarter Is not to be sneeZed at
these days" Davis. contrary to popular
belief. is about the highest Of high
brows- He is a Harvard graduate and
is an expert in geology and metallurEy.
He wrote melOdramas because his first
one paid him $1,000 in royalties and he
could never get away from the lure OF
gold that followed each one. He has
written 80 plays in seventeen years and
many of them were written in two
weeks time
The law Of compensation is plainly at
work with newspapermen in New York
during the clash Of arms abroad. We
have newspapermen who are being ship
ped to sanatOriums for rest and quiet
and We have newspapermen who are
having a holiday every day, or. as one
reporter said: Every day since the Rais-
er declared war has been Christmas for
me. 1 feel like hanging up my stocking
every night" But We disagree. The
burden Of the conflict falls upon manag-
ing editors who must make a showing
and are held accountable by the powers
that be. One managing editor on New
York morning paper has been going to
work every afternoon at o'clock and
knocking on at o'clock next morning.
After three weeks of this they shipped
him up to the White Mountains TO get
him out Of the way. Copy readers. and
IN fact all desk men, are beginning
TO feel the strain OF handling the reams
Of rumors, reports. denials. etc.
But the city editors-heigh no, That IS
indeed the existence. The city editor
anything short OF a double murder and
as for the repOrters-weH. just recall
what the one said above about it being
Christmas every day.
This has been an OF year for our
burglars, thugs hold-up men and pick
pockets. Not that they haven't been on
the job. because the assaults and rob
berries did not diminish. but the pelf
was not so plentiful. Property loss last
year for a given period was 81, ,S21. .sas
and the loss for the same period this
year was Sl.362,4lT At the same time
the amount restored to its owners in
creased from S765. .212 to SSS2, 15S There
were 2O5 murders this year in contrast
TO 1SS last year. which shows that mur-
der. too. is on the wane. The old town IS
getting good. 1t might be mentioned that
Billy Sunday spent two weeks here this
year and this may have had something
to do with it.
Almost every elevator in New York
Is run by the West Indian boys and no
one ever thought the real reason for II
until the other day a man from the West
Indies explained just why. He declared
that the West Inditn youths have a great
passion for wearing uniforms and that
any kind of service which sports a uni
form appeals to them intensely. Eleva-
tor men in apartment houses and fire.
Quently in office buildings wear beauti-
ful uniforms Ergo. every West Indian
who arrives in New York looks for an
got it he has himself photographed in
his uniform and sends the picture home
to his folks in Barbados or Jamaica.
Now if some gentleman from Germany
will just tell US why nearly all the
grocers and grocers' assistants in New
York are Platt-Deutschers another
weighty question will be solved.
For watching aeroplane flights without
straining the neck an inventor has pat
ented mirror to be attached to the end