The Washington herald., 1919-10-11
NEW YORK CITY
By o. o. McNTYRE

New York. Oct 1o.-This Is an
era of wearing patched trousers
and resoled shoes and boasting
about it-so 1t is not strange that
New Yorkers may still be seen
wearing straw hats. Even at this
late date I counted forty In one
block on Broadway. and the latest
date for them Is September 20.
The natural time for the seasonal
disappearance of straw hats is when
summer ends. Years ago. however.
1t became a custom of the younger
set on the Stock Exchange to de-
stroy any straw hat appearing on
the trading floor on or after Sep
tember Is.
Evidently this wasteful notion
has gone into other walks of life.
This year, with the habits of war
enforcing thrift. the needless were
smashing straw hats. And so
thrifty have men become that where
they formerly laughed they now
fought.
Two lamentable cases Of the re-
suits of hat smashing were printed
in New York papers. In the first,
the outraged citizen went to court
and complained against the hat
breaker, but the magistrate dis
missed the prisoner.
In the other instance a man who
had taken up Wall streets frivo-
lous trick seized the straw hat of
one who proved to be q policeman.
In the end. after a tumult. assault,
anI arrest and flight, the hat
smasher fell dead with the police
/ mans bullet in his heart
1t seems that there is only one
place IN New York where you can
smash q hat and get away with 1t,
and that Is on the Stock Exchange.
Admission to that corral may be
had>for about $4,000 whenever q
seat Is UP for sale.
One of the features of the end of
the straw hat season in New York
is the sudden abandonment of thou
sands in New York hotels by guests.
1t Is p custom in such hotels as the
Waldorf, Commodore. Astor, Ma
jestic and others to place the hats
on the curb outside of. the hotel
and less fortunates from the East
Side flock over and take their pick
laying them away for next year.
The reign OF the. hotel bandits
terrorized guests in New York
hotels. Each day had a hold-up
more startling. A nervous gentle
man went into the breakfast room
OF the Ritz and opened his morning
paper. Screaming headlines told
him of three more hotel hold-ups
during the night. Just about this
time the waiter came UP.
What will you have, sir?" he
asked.
Ham and yeggs.r said the guest,
without looking up from his paper.
Now that Gilda Gray, the famous
Barbary Coast shimmy dancer. Is
dancing with guests in a Broadway
cafe, they are telling some strange
stories. One is that a reporter on
the World danced with her after the
theater the other night and at a.
m. he was still shaking.
1t was a regular wild-west hold
up scene in one of the Forty-second
street lobster palaces the other
evening when a half hundred De-
partment of Justice sleuths pounced
into the room from every corner
and demanded that patrons keep
their seats. And then they went
around shifting the drinks of vari-
Gus patrons. Those who were
drinking iced tea and gingerale did
not relish the procedure at all. In
fact. the newspapers were full of
letters for several days from indig-
nant patrons who were hot under
| the collar. However. they seem,d
utterly unable to realize that times
have changed. Prohibition is here,
and whether they like 1t or not, the
law must be enforced. One of the
amusing sidelights on the raid was
the rushing to the curb of a score
of men. who began emptying bot
ties of whisky they carried on their
hips. Broadway wept at such q
terrible waste.