The Washington herald., 1917-09-27
New York, Day by Day
By o. o. MCINTYRE.

| Special Correspondence Of Washinst.I Head
| New York, Sept. 26.-It took a meek
little man who lives way up in the
Bronx to find the most distinguished
thing in New York. He had been
away from his bookkeeping for a two
weeks vacation. and when he came
back he found in half an hour the es-
sential symbol OF our beloved city.
The stranger perhaps would pick the
Woolworth tower, Broadway's lights,
! Fifth avenue at 4 o'clock. The Brook
Ign Bridge or Riverside drive. They
all count. There is a thrill in each
| of them. But 10 the dyed-in-the-wool
New Yorker they do not give the
, first ping of home-again exhiliaration
The answer to all home sickness,
the first warm rush OF blood to Met
ropolitan veins comes when the vaCa-
! tioning New Yorker, bending his head
buries his nose for the first time in
that dense, eternal. unchanging, UNI
| forgetable subway smell. There is the
| essence of New York-the unique and
unimitable essence.
| After all, other cities have towers
other cities have wide streets and high
bridges. and great crowds, but no city
i on earth has the peculiar air of Mr..
| Shonts' underground railroad.
| The city being the most artihciai
| spot in the world the symbol is oil
course artificial. There is something
/ about the subway smell that is alb
solutely different. 1t makes you think
| instantly of New YorK-of tired home
coers, the cliff dwelling clerks. deli
I E,,V, IrNA Of
things that are distinctiyely New
! York.
Some of the returning New York
young men who have become officers
at Plattsburg. tell amusing tales of
life in barracks. as lived by citizens
unused to any conditions. One of
them concerns an inspection of 1.lar-
tiers made by captain during which
sleepy candidate made an amusing
error at the wrong time.
At the end of the barrack hunks,
upper and lower, were small cards upon
which appeared the name of the oc-
cupant, the number of his rifle and
the number of his bayonet. They
were known as bunk cards. Incidently
the hunks contained tough mattresses
and no springs.
Coming along on an early morning
inspection. the captain raped on the
side of bunk which the registra-
ton card had disappeared from.
Bunk card he roared
A sleepy voice within answered:
You bet it is-damned hard"
When L. NJ. Bell. a former Broad
way actor, now Washington editor,
70 nj he 90
port, Me-, and Storm Creek, Iowa, he
had occasion to stop one night with
his fellow troupers in a little town in
Virginia.
There were no hotels in the town
Just boarding house kept by kind
but garrulous woman. Before the
first night performance. after all had
dined. they sat about on the front
porch of the house. and the landlady
remarked that they were used TO good
shows. Why" she said. we get
all the New York successes right from
Broadway" This was not pleasant
news to the members OF the company
for they felt they might have a hard
audience.
Mr.. Bell asked her the name of
some of the shows. Grimes Cellar
Door," she said, was the last one"
No one had heard of such a play.
Then they asked her for the name of
the last play in town. She looked
thoughtful for several minutes, but
couldn't remember. At length she
called out to the kitchen, Lizzie"
she said. what's the name of those
trunks on the back porch?"
The news seeping back TO Broad
way from Madrid that Nihinski, the
dancer. slept on pallet of straw for
doubling his price before appearing
before the king amused a lot of
Broadway managers. Nihinski used
to refuse to go on here until he got
more money, but they couldn't put
him in jail.
Hyv-n n n nAA