The Washington herald., 1918-11-14

Special Correspondent Of The Washington Herald
New York, Nov. IS.-Charlie Suther-
land browses around Manhattan
hunting in the queer corners of the
slums and the old haunts Of the
Corinthians for journalistic slants
that will make good Sunday morning
reading for a metropolitan newspaper.
To round-the town with Sutherland
is an achievement worth while. He
is a de luxe guide.
Romance is always around the cor
ner. The other morning started
with him from the Lambs Club and
in a two blocks walk we stumbled
onto a sign reading Mind Your
Mending Shop" We entered and
found several rooms taken by an en-
terprise that could only flourish in
city the size of New York.
The proprietor was a young col
lege girl who was forced to make her
living suddenly. She hit upon the
idea OF darning socks for occupants
of bachelor apartments in the neigh
borhOod. The business grew. She be-
gan to sew buttons and mend shirts.
She now has twenty-four employees,
three motor delivery wagons and her
income is $1,000 a year.
fIOIn ltltIt We "dAhtu UP 7 u III
avenue and in the East Eighties we
found a district that is inhabited
almost exclusively by band men and
men who play in theater orchestras.
Each corner has its own open trade
mark where instruments are traded.
The street is noisy with the blast OF
dozens Of different instruments. 1t
is about the only place where a man
can learn TO play a horn without hav-
ing his neighbors holding an indigna-
uon meeting.
We noticed that most Of the musi-
clans had their hair cut in an odd
way. It was clipped a distance above
the temples and in the back and then
allowed 10 grow at length on top
One musician said It was known as
the "Nijinski hair cut" The dancer
started it and it became the vogue
among dancers and musicians. sup
planting the old style Of permitting
the hair to grow down over the ears
and collars.
The last stop was made at a NOV
ing picture studio. About the en-
trance where extras" are employed
were several well known magazine
illustrators. We learned that these
illustrators 60 to the movie studios
and look over the extras" to hnd
the types they want for ma Eazine
illustrating. 1t has solved a big pro-
blem for the illustrators and given
employment to many who are only
employed part-time in the movies.
The wooden cigar store Indian il
almost extinct. There are ten left in
Manhattan so an observer reports.
Civilization. with its ever changing
stream OF Innovations has chased
the wooden Indian down the last
trail and into the Happy Hunting
Grounds-the junk heap. The head
Of a chain OF cigar stores extending
from coast TO coast put the wooden
Indian out of business. He found that
snappily dressed windows lured more
customers than an inanimate red
skin holding a tomshawk. 1t was an
interesting experiment that decided
the fate OF the wooden cigar store
Indian. In one store on a busy cor
ner the Indian stood and on another
equally busy corner the windows were
dressed attraCtIvely. The well dressed
windows resulted in four times as
much business for the week as that
done by the Indian sign lure
The decline OF shopliftng in large
department stores in New York has
been so marked during the past year
that the police have been searching
about for the cause. 1t used to be
that about four or five women pro-
fessionals were arrested every week.
And scarcely a day passed that some
well dressed woman was not tapped
on the shoulder by a store detective
and asked 10 accompany him TO the
managers private office. There have
been about five arrests in six months.
1t may be vigilance on the part OF
store detectives or it may be that the
professional shoplifter has found
some more warthy avenues for the
expression of her peculiar talents.