The Washington herald., 1918-08-22
by o. o. MCINTYRE.
By DMc

woman with a past. A group OF us
watched her entrance into a mixed
gathering in a Broadway cafe. She
was without a doubt the best
dressed woman in the place-per-
haps her gown was q little hashy
but all eyes turned her way. Sum
day writers have DEVOTED pages to
her. all highly illustrated.
And then the group turned TO dis
cussing purple pasts in the Lam
guage OF pink philosophy. The
women with a past in New York,
like Millions soul. is forced to be a
star and dwell apart But the fact
that she is a star illumines her
isolation.
1t was not hard to see that this
woman with a past awakened in the
breasts of her sisters who dwell
among untrodden ways a curiosity
and an envy as poignant as they
are ineXplicable. The preceptress
Of youth may chant BE good. sweet
maid. and let who will be clever"
but youth seems to figure out un-
wisely that a close pursuance Of the
narrow path does not lead to long
black earrings. well-adjusted wells
and a discriminating taste in per-
fumes.
The young and foolish Broadway
fiapper may not cherish a definite
desire to die notorious but it is GER
tain that she cherishes a desire not
to die ignored. To keep remarking
that the wages of sin is death is as
ineffective as 1t is ungrammatical.
In the group was a hardened old
rounder whose method of life was
illustrated by the little puffs under
his eyes and the avuncular paunch.
To him we turned for an explana-
tion of II all and his reasoning was
most profound.
You never get anywhere" he
said. by telling the new happer on
Broadway to go her saccharine way.
An old Greek said, that woman is
best about whom least Is spoken,
whether for good or evil but mod
ern publicity has taken the punch
out of that bromide.
That doll there with a past would
give anything in the world for a man
to take her out to dinner and not ask
her to drink a cocktail or to refrain
from offering her a cigarette. II you
future understand that the woman
with a past would give anything TO
be like her you might get some-
where. Why. that doll would give a
quart Of her best pearls to be able
to knit a sweater or to go out with a
man who didn't start making love TO
her after the first cocktail That Is
what the young girl playing on
Broadway should learn. The women
with purple pasts are the unhappiest
in the world. Everything they do is
for excitement to forget the past"
Italians are ever courteous! Ameri-
Gus Nittoli and Frank lie Medica
stood at a corner on the Bowery.
III pay for this next drink7" said
Americus.
No, indeed-Tn pay" Frank con-
tradicted.
Debate followed. and then some one
yelled for the police. lie Medica lay
on the sidewalk with a bullet in his
breast. Americas fled. The drink
was unbought.
The recent confusion attending the
opening of the new subway system
which resulted in panics, fainting
women and hysterical men has
brought a storm of disapproval down
upon the heads Of the subway spon-
sors. The subway heads seem to
know to the exact number how many
passengers they carry, and yet when
the time came for Judgment they
failed miserably. After all. there
seems to be nothing new TO be writ
ten about the subway. Victor Hugo
covered the ground exhaustively in
describing Jean Valjean's escape
through the Paris sewers.
One washerwoman started down.
town with a basket Of clothes the day
the new subway was opened and got
side-tracked on a new road and was
lost in the heart OF the city for eight
hours.