The Washington herald., 1917-10-25

New York, Oct. 23.-If New Yorkers
delight in any one thing when they
travel away from the city 1t is in dis
cussing the Garish white lights of
Broadway and its harrow-teeth side
streets. But IL Broadway depended
upon New Workers II would not be
more brilliantly lighted than any other
thoroughfare.
A statistician has discovered that
only one out of every 80 New Workers
is a patron of Broadway and that the
lights are in reality kept agleam by
the strangers within the city's gates.
The nightly bedlam that breaks loose
when the theaters empty their thou
sands represents a mixed population
from keokuk, Pittsville and other
way stations.
Most New Workers are in bed and
asleep by 1870. They know nothing of
the noise of the carriage calls. clang-
ing bells. putting motors, metallic null
ti-roar and the dazzling. fiaring lights
of signs on the Great White Way.
There are boys and girls living IN
Harlem and the Bronx who have never
seen Broadway. Their city is bounded
by the neighboring domiciliary bee
hives where people live a canned life
year In and year out
In the congested districts the ira tilc
officers say that most of those who
get lost downtown are those who have
lived in New York ali their lives. Very
few strangers ever lose their way.
Several weeks ago sam II. Clark,
who lives in Bismarck, n. D., dropped
of at New York from a hunting trip
in Maine and was discussing New
York over the demi tasses in Broad
way cafe with group of literary men
who were born and raised in Manhat-
tan.
Clark is only an occasional visitor
to the city, but he wageTed that he
could lcse any one of the party in
New York in an hours walk. The
wager was accepted. He took the
selected victim zig-zagging through
the town and reached a certain spot
and then asked him to pilot him back
from where they had started. After
an hour the born New Yorker gave
up. 1t was discovered that he was
only ten blocks from where he had
lived for three years.
He is an young aviator and by this
time on his way "over there" A few
months ago he was wrecking a strong
constitution bv staying up nearly all
the night and breakfasting at 10
o'clock. And then the call came. The
night before he was leaving l heard
him talking at an opposite table. IF
this war hadn't come along l do not
know what would have happened to
me. I'm afraid was becoming a par
asite. The minute l got on a uniform
l felt different. I can look a lot of
folks in the eye now that 1 used to
dodge when l saw them coming"
4 good meal sometimes works Won
ders. At banquet the other night
where some men of big affairs had
congregated they were discussing sue
cess In a smoking room. Most of them
were in the $4,000 class. And yet not
one of them had gotten to a high pin
nacle before being discharged for in
competency. One man told how he
had drifted down to his last five dol
lar bill and felt that he was a failure.
He happened by an expensive restau-
rant. dropped in for his last good
meal-before doing something desper-
ate.
While dining man came to him
and offered him job. 1t was the be-
ginning of new things for him. Had
l opened my pocketbook," he said, II
would have been eating in a cheap
restaurant where my present employ
er would never have seen me. and
only Providence knows what would
have happened to me-"
There is a famous editor on Park
Row who has the distinction of being
discharged from every English-speak-
ing newspaper in town. Now any one
of them would be willing to get him.