The Washington herald., 1918-06-14

! Special Correspondent Of The Washington Herald
New York. June l3.-When you come
to New York looking for an eating
place with atmosphere do not fail
| to visit NO. $40 West Thirty-ninth
street" I do not know the name Of
the proprietors and they do not seem
to be particular about the public
knowing anything about them. So
far as l know il is the only restau-
rant remaining with the atmosphere"
reminiscent of Semprini or Laloy's in
the days before the white-tiled, one
armed eateries catapulted into public
favor.
mo. $40" is in a street where race
suicide is unknown. The restaurant
is in the back OF bar room and one
must pass through the bar TO reach
| the low ceiling room which looks out
/ upon a slum areaway-an areaway
Criss-erossed with clothes lines,
smudgy-faced children and rusty fire.
escapes.
| The bill Of fare Is painted on a
blackboard and a dinner for three
with wine totaled $40. The walters
are of the strangest type ] have ever
! seen and are unknown TO Broadway
They are the cringing scrvile sort
like rare flowers that a harsh word
would wither. There are only four
walters to wait OH a seating capacity
of about seventy-fv". Service is an
unknown quantity but what is lack
ing in service is made UP in splendid
food.
I All the Broadway types were therc.
/ The fra agile Nazimova-likc Terpon
with a companion red of neck and
noisy Of collar were there. Opposite
l. ns
another table Irma Deremea1N, the
artist, and an ermined movie star in
the corner allowing those who wished
to gaze upon her collection of jewels
! At still another table was a spriuk-
1 ling of untamed femininities-known
in the Broadway vernacular as wild
women The newly made widow
swathed in black puffed lanQu:dly at
I linnumerable cigarettes Three Span
| ish gentlemen Chartered about
glories of America.
The menu contained filet mignon
with stuffed tomatoes at CSC. On
Broadway it is $l.25. The coffee is
of Turkish variety and is served
in glasses like they do on the Paris
boulevards and sells for sc a glass.
mo. $40" has been running for ten
years, and yet 1t is never crowded
l
Benjamin de Casseres. psalmist Of
night and Nietzcheism, has dedicat-
ed his new book of poems to his
journalistic associates, Carlo For
naro and Marius de Zayas. The
three fiery young publicists first got
together years ago to plot to over
throw Porfirio Diaz, of Mexico. The
| "revolutIonists table" around which
they foregathered in the Tender
loin chile con carne resort conduct
ed by Joel Rinaldo, the Greaser, is
still pointed out to sight-seers. They
are never seen during the day
but at night they appear. serene.
cynical and smiling. They are born
radicals, the foe OF industrialiSm.
and prescribed morality, opposed in
toto to the present order of things
economical, political, aesthetic and
social.
When De Casseres first appeared
in New York he wrote a letter TO
the World in which he said: Il am
organizing a society for the pro-
motion OF oficiaI and private hy-
pocrisy. 1t will be composed of
pink-tea zanies, riszies. witlings,
reelection, Chadbands, Peckeniffs.
ljobbernowls. dodards, moon-calves,
dunderpates and a few Of the Wise
Men OF Gotham"
Seen around the town: A white
whiskered messenger boy" deliver
ing messages on roller skates. A
group of college girls pummeling a
male flirt on Broadway. A woma n
wearing a bonnet made to resemble
a steel helmet. A Serbian artist
selling newspapers for q living. A
dramatic critic admiring his name
in electric lights endorsing a play
over Broadway playhouse. A
group of weeping stage folk in the
lobby of the Savoy waiting for news
from the bedside Of Anna Held.
who wanted to be one girls hero