The Washington herald., 1918-08-03
By Dwlc

We" 10TH. august s.-1I was Ine
pre-dinner hour-the period when
Manhattan busily prepares for the
social activities of the night. /
sat in a Broadway hotel lobby wait
ing for a friend Groups of smart
people were chatting all about. The
atmosphere was redolent of perfum-
ed luxury and a sort Of ultra-so-
phistication.
Suddenly q breath of fresh salt
air seemed to sweep clean the
scented space as into the offing hove
sailor boy and his mother. He
wns tall and awkward, walking
with the roll beloved OF sailors.
His hands were red and his sleeves
seemed too short His fiappy trous-
ers tapped hardly less Happily than
his dear little plainly dressed
mother. who clung TO his arm and
was happily tossed to and fro by
his rolling gait.
Along they came, he, awed per-
haps by the gorgeous place, blush
ing bit in his awkward shyness,
She was chatting away oblivious to
their surroundings, and looking up
into his eyes as though there were
no one else in the world. let alone
that hotel lobby. She was keeping
up his courage and bravely smil-
ing to the last.
And, dear. wherever you are, re-
member"
Little groups heard her say this
as they passed the lounging chairs,
and then all over the lobby was
heard his big hearty voice reply
ing: You just better bet / won't
forget"
No one smiled. There was not
a glimpse of ridicule. In fact peo-
pie looked almost reverently at
him. Nearly all of them went away
with that scene held in memory,
with that hearty refrain ringing IN
their hearts: You just better bet
won't forget"
The summer school at Columbia
Is conducting tours to Chinatown
this season for the guileless souls
from out of town who flock there
seeking knowledge and bowling ac-
quaintance with the vice and squal-
or of a great city.
Accordingly. Chinatown is preparing
TO look its worst, with true celestial
hospitality, so that the visitors
may not be disappointed. wielders Of
gimlets are making brand new bullet
holes in the woodwork, to lend simili-
tude to the tales of tong wars thar
the lecturer will spin.
Opium dens have hired more help
to smoke Bull Durham with a vacu-
Gus expression. and the gas light m
Death Alley" is turned down even
lower than usual.
Doc" Waterbury. an internationally
known chevalier d'industrie, with a
record as long as from New York to
Montauk Point, was gathered or
Broadway the other day under the
anti loafin law. Broadway does not
fear for Doc" for he seems to bear
charmed life. always sliding into
trouble and out again.
In the before the war DAYS, Water
bury was an ocean greyhound, travel
ing on liners with marked decks the
modern diletante version of the dare
devils with hair on their chest, who
went around the Horn in wind-jau-
mers searching for buried treasures.
Doc" and his crew brew their
stratagems in Riverside Drive apart
ments or dark corners of hotel lobbies
and their victims are usually blue
jowled magnates of modern business
who fall into the traps on liners be-
cause they have nothing to do ano
enjoy sitting in" around the green
table to kill time.
One Of Waterbury's friends s
Charles Gondorf, "King of the wire
'tappers" just now in Sing Sing but
who will soon be out. They never
stay in long and why they are pei
mitted their freedom time after time
is one OF New York's insoluble mys-
teries. In about a month after they
leave prison New Yorkers awaken one
morning to read that another unusu-
pecting sucker has been trimmed for
his roll by one Of the ancient conf
dence games.