The Washington herald., 1917-06-27
Army and Navy News
Best Service Column in City.

Special Correspondent Of The Washington Herald
New York. June 26-The thing which
Ostede Stedam does not know are, as
he says himself. legion. Or to quote
him exactly lots" He has a sus-
picion that he is alive. knows that he
Is employed regularly. is loyal
Polish-American. and beyond that is
not even curious. He lives his own
Care-free life in his own way-un-
| fettered by knowledge.
ostede sweeping OF the steps Of a
Fifth avenue hotel at which he is
employed as porter. The policeman
noted the wide stretch of shoulders,
considered the cola psible brow.
estimated the porter's age and asked
MN II he had conscription regis
that.
For the army" explained the Of
ficer
But I got a nice Job here" smiled
ostede. indicating the broom and
growing dust pile.
That's all right" said the police
man. but you have to register. All
young men have to register until the
The war?' howled Ostede: what
war? Have we got war yet? SPAIN"
mo. Germany"
Ostede was completely amazed.
You want me to join" he asked.
sure ] join" and. deserting the work
in hand. and acting precisely like an
enthusiastic volunteer. Ostede strolled
down to make his mark on the neces-
sary papers.
Literary agents have issued COM
writer's. Perhaps it is the war-per-
haps not. but 1t is something. The
literary agents say that authors have
no realization of their wonderful
opportunities. An author may sell a
short story. Then he may make a
novei of 1t. Then he does it as a one
act play and then as a three-act play.
Then a movie may be made Of 1t.
Then maybe the play is made into
musical comedy 1t sounds nice
and literary agents are nice folk-but
the truth of it is the man who is
trying to make a living writing has
grown tired of rejection slips that
are printed. He wants the personal
touch-that is written note as to
why his story has failed. He has
spent a lot of time on 1t and he de-
| serves this consideration.
Around the hotel lobbies! At the
BevOort, the Claridge. the Majestic
and the Astor 1 saw women knitting
socks for soldiers. Some wag has
called it doing their knit" In one
'CDDN n SOOu lOOhlhS sOuhS khl was
watching an elderly woman knit.
Finally she burst into rippling peals
of laughter, 'I can't help it," she said.
1T seems foolish. A woman will
put s. worth OF time on a pair Of
socks that she can buy for Is cents.
And many of the socks they make
can't be worn because they are not
wen made. 1T sounds like sense,
but on the other hand the soldiers
may get a touch of sentiment by the
TACT that his socks were knit by the
women at home. And sentiment
means a lot in the trenches.
1t Is said along the Rialto that the
new Follies show cost FlorenZ Zieg-
field exactly $4,000. Whether he will
realize on this plunge or not is to be
seen later. Most of the papers gave
1t good write ups and this means
much in New York. However. the
point is that it was a daring thing
to do. The summer season Is here.
People do not go to the theater in
the summer. The demand by New
Workers was for opening night seats.
II they cannot get them. they pos
sibly will not go at all. Some Of the
seats sold for as high as $50 each and
one prominent Broadway spender
paid $500 for two seats in a stage
box. There is one scene hung en-
tirely in chiffon and there was an
other scene in Chinese lacquer. One
critic said waggishly: "The new
Follies is the best show that Lady
Dun Gordon ever wrote"