The Washington herald., 1919-04-08
By o. o. MCINTYRE.
Special Correspondence to The
Washington Herald.

New York. April IA noted Eng
lish novelist on his visit To Broadway
several years ago made a round of
the old rose and gilt dansants. brows-
ed around among the problem plays
and swept the subsequent cobwebs
away by a peep at musical comedies.
He watched the wriggly signs, the
kitten and the ball of twine in cleo
trio lights against the night sky. and
then again he watched the human
moths attracted from all corners of
the world-silk hated men, yogis of
the flesh, sleek and pomaded young
clerks, slaves Of the needle, dashing
young debutantes, and nymphs de
pave in their little white shoes.
After the midnight tour Of the roof
shows he walked again up Broadway
and stepped in front of the canopy
of the Astor. Up few blocks an in
exhaustible syphon was squirting
seltzer into a high-baIl glass-the
whisky at the bottom being dis
| tinguishable in brown lights and the
entire sign was a myriad Of yari-
colored popping lights.
That high-ball." said the novelist.
represents Broadway. Take 1t away
and 1t has nothing"
Bets Favor HiEh-bau.
On July / Broadway is to lose its
high-ball. What Is going to happen?
Even the blase New Yorker who
visits New York only once or twice
a year is wondering. Nobody knows
A man of some little prominence is
said to have made a bet in the Clar-
idge grill the other night that the
high-ball would still be selling on
PrnadU Ton
to bet 5000 against 1900 at first
Then he raised It to to 1 and it was
taken.
The great cafes are running full
tilt and expect to close up with a wild
New Years Eve night on June 80
Paul Salvin owns the largest string OF
Broadway restaurants-including Rec
tor's-now the Cafe de Paris. He ex-
poets whisky to be abolished and
also light wines. but he pins his hopes
on the 2.75 per cent beer and is max
ing his plans to go right ahead.
1t is quite surprising to see how
Broadway is willing to give up its
hard LIQUOR and even the light wines
and seems willing to jog along with
beer. The recent announcement that
New York brewers were to go ahead
under the advice Of Elihu Root and
make 2.75 per cent beer was a stimu-
liant that made Broadway laugh
again.
Beer Has Many Friends.
As matter of fact, it is true. that
all Of the men who have gone the
pace on Broadway drank whisky and
gin One Of the Considine boys used
to say: Il never saw a guy go broke
drinking beer. And I never saw a
beer drinker out in this gay little
alley after II o'clock"
Two years ago to have made
statement that Broadway would be
willing, II needs be, to drink a 275
per cent beer would have landed the
man who made the remark in the
psychopathic ward at Bellevue.
While the issue as to whether or
not 275 per cent beer is intoxicating
Is new in a certain sense, there are
situations and experiences both in
this and other countries to support
the view that a larger proportion of
alcohol is needed to make a beverage
Intoxicating. In Maine, for many
years, the juries have held that
drinks containing not in excess of 8
per cent OF alcohol were not intoxi-
eating and that dealers therein were
not violators OF the prohibition law
Of the State, which, by the way, is
the Oldest statute Of its kind in this
country.
The defenders of beer argue thai