The Washington herald., 1918-12-12

speclAl Correspondent OF The washington hefaiu
New York, Dec. 1l.-In the swirl OF
activities preceding the rise of scores
of theatrical curtains, New York pre-
sents to the visitor The Crowded
Hour" Between I and s o'clock Broad
way becomes raging torrent of peo-
PIE. pouring out of hotel lobbies, bar
Der shops. cafes, grills and bars. The
sidewalk traffic is heavier than at any
other time.
Flappers, tin-panners, chemical
floras, cabaret girls. and all the
products of the nocturnal life OF the
White Way leave their brown-stone
boarding houses 70: the beginning OF
the revels of the night. The chorus
men, the best dressed and most poor
ly paid men i'm the world, may also
be seen hurrying along to their dress
ing room-which Al Jolson calls No
Mans Land.
The soulless roue, impeccably sar-
torial. smelling of barbe1 lotions. be-
gins his scavenging foTT the night.
Young clerks. jazzed up for the eve
ming with a cocktail glow, jolt along
in taxicabs with their heart desires,
happy for the hour and caring not for
the lO-cent lunches they must endure
until next payday.
gilded hotel lobbies come the
strangers-the visitors perhaps from
the snow wastes of Alaska or the
African veldt All parts of the world
touch elbows during The Crowded
Hour.
The meeker and more homespun
crowds are on their way to the
movies to yloat over Charlie Chaplin's
abb ity to lift the slapping of an in
nocent in the face with a custard
pie to an industrial art The movie
crowds seem more sincere-more
worth while
Nov and then the whine of
beggat or the lurch of a drunken fel-
| low o. the voice of a street hawker
draws a crowd that impedes traffic
to sucl, an extent that flying wedge
| of police reserves breaks through and
keep the line moving forward.
The abrupt staccato bark of the
motor cars, the changing of bells. the
| cry of the newsies and the hum of
thousands of voices all give zest to
, The Crowded Hour. Around the the
ater lobbies the crowds run out into
the middle of the street. Not half
are patrons-they are just the curious
who want to look on while finely
| clad men and women trip from their
limOusines to the entrance.
In every theater nightly there are
! celebrities-sometimes one may see
/ the President and Mrs. Wilson, Charles
NJ. Schwab and Secretary Baker and
| hundreds of others whose names are
familiar to every tongue.
I During the recent War Fund
! Drive in a Broadway theater. a
worker introduced a soldier as fol-
/ lows: Il fake great pleasure in in
7 Producing Private So-and-So. 1
| don't know whether he has been
over there, but he certainly was
willing to go when peace was de-
! Clared."
There is a new clown at the Hip
pOdrome. First came "Marceline." ."
He took New York by storm. After
him in succession came "SIivers" "
with the grotesque feet. Toto" the
! Belgian with the high-pitched laugh
of a maniac, little "Bluch." who
could make one leg shorter than the
other. and now comes "PoodIes. "
He is Edwin Hanneford in real life.
"PoOdles' wears a crazy patch suit
and can disjoint his neck. Also he
can turn a double flip-flop He
smokes trick cigars and rides in a
funny automobile The children roar
( with Iaughter-and that is what the
clown is supposed to accomplish
| Most of the clowns lead lonely lives.
| They rarely associate with others
| The amusing "Slivers" after years Of
/ lOnesomeness wound up his career by
drinking a fatal draught of poison in
a cheerlcss boarding house room.
Little "BuCh," last years Hip
clown. was a pathetic figure off stage.
! He was too shy to talk. When he
wasn't on the stage he hid in his
! dressing room and made pillows out
/ of leather cigarette flags. He gave
them to war relief societies to sell.