New-York tribune., 1919-06-17
Giving a Thought to Broadway


Sir Somehow. 1 can't bring myself to be-
leve that those who say "Broadmay" are
quite vllainously vulgar as c. A maintains
These "Broad,cay' people says he talk about
"avviation"! Well. Mr.. Nathaniel Parker Willis
considered both fine poet and very fine gentle
man in the first half of the last century, begins
what is. perhaps, his best poem Unseen Spirits"
with the line:
The shadows lay along Broad,uav"
And though Mr.. Willis recommits the same crime
repeatedly in other poems l that he mever
said "avviation." Stranger still, the poem just
cited was selected for special praise by critic
named Edgar Allan Poe who is said to have been
even more tinicky than you and l in regard to
correctness in rhyme, stress and quantity. So |
am constrained to believe that Mr. Poe backed
up Mr.. Willis; and yet none of Mr. Poe's
biographers accuse him of whistling in their ears
in the subway. and ! positive that they would
so have accused him if they could have raked
up scintilla of evidence against him
These "Broadwoy' persons it appears vote
early and often in popularity contests among
"hllum stars But here IS that roughneck
William Cullen Bryant, writing in poem called
Spring in Town.:
For the wide sidewalks Of Broadway are then
Gorgeous q rivulets bank in June
Is c. A. prepared to prove that Mr.. Bryant ever
voted for any "fllum'' star?
contingent
band the acme of rnusical expression. Ahem
Another coarse person called John Greenleaf
Whittier penned the following stanza in poem
read at the unveiling of a statue of Fitz-Greene
Halleck in 1877:
'"The Greeks wild onset Wall Street knew,
The Red King walked Broad,uay
And Alnwcks Castles roses blew
From Palisades to Bay
Now, willing to bet that Mr. Whittier never
~ IL,
1t is incredible. Sooner would believe it of the
author of the lyric the chorus of which begins:
oh Uncle John!
Isn't it nice Broadway" !"
Further dissenting from c. AS indictments
once popular poem called Nothing to Wear" by
Mr.. William Allen Butler, contains the couplct:
And yet though three months had passed
since the day
This merchandise went on twelve carts. up
Broadaoay"
Even So l don't believe that fire. smoke and
removal sales presented irresistible attractions
to Mr. Butler
Getting down to New Workers. whom some of
remember here is Edmund Clarence sted
man. writing in '"The Princes BALI:
What scntillant splendors found display
In mirrored windows along Broadwoyv
Yet, matter what c. A. may think Mr. Sted
man. l recall him. positively did not wear
large yellow diamonds.
Henry Cuyler Bunner wrote, in Their We'd
ding Journey-1S34"
And when ratified up Broadway"
And again in THE Red Box Vesey Street:
Rises suen roar to say
The Bowery has met Broad1rov"
Still, have never known any one else to int-
mate that Mr. Bunner referred to any lady as
'the wifi
Richard Watson Glider, in The City" has the
quatran:
And soft is the raindrop's beat
And the fountains lyric play;
But to me no music is half sweet
AS the thunder of Broadway"
other anc'ents like myself who can remember Mr.
Glider are prepared to maintain that his vocabu-
larry did not consist principally of such expressions
as gotta. t'anta mhassamatter, shake a icg. leave
me be- buu. dope. bunk, Glass; medium borled eoos.
and don't gimme drgy,ncnt
with the exceptions of dope" and "bunk"
which are often convenient and peculiarly ap-
plicabe-~I don't the above expressions much
myself still, also pronounce c. AS shibboleth
broad"dy, as any one who is interested may
learn in September the appearance Of nv next
book Ballads of Old New York" why should
the movies get all the agentingO
ARTHUR tiUIrERMAN
The Marines subtly rebuke the President
for his absence from Washington. At the
recruiting station on East Twenty third
Street the sign reads: "Men Wanted at
Once for Service in Hawaii, Panama, the
Philippines, the United States, and Other
European Countries"
Tho President will not think of home
until the treaty is signed We're like that
No home for US until we sign ono with
the landlord.' r. p A.