The Washington herald., 1919-02-15


New York. Feb. l4.-There Is some
thing so deliciously irresponsible
about the young Broadway Salaman-
der that one cannot blame the youth
ful hearts for beating fast for her.
She waves all trouble away with a
fing of her highly manicured hand
She sleeps until noon. breakfasts in
the smartest places at ono and from
then until the Midnight Frolics Is
over her life is a jingiing Journey of
10Y.
She walks the thin line between re-
spectability and the world of tho
nymph du pave Generally she winds
up in one of those 81 900 a month gor-
geous marble apartment houses-a
bird in a gilded cage. The life of the
Salamsnder ends unhappily unless she
sees her error soon enough and walks
In other paths.
Tho Salamander is not permitted in
respectable cafes unescorted so she Is
generally to be found in the late af-
ternoon at some ornate soda fountain
around Times Square. She can drink
about fifteen highballs-they cost 30
cents a throw now-before she Is
ready TO be served a half a COW, plus
the hashed lyonnaise.
After dinner she Is ready for a $40
show and on the way home she Is
liable TO drag the victim into the
midnight shops and sting him for a
mesh bag, Il pair OF pumps and some
times a fur coat. But he must never
escort her home-no never. If he re-
covers by the morrow he may call her
UP anytime after noon
There was a young man from a mid
western city who came to New York
for a winter fling. He met a Sala-
mander in tea room down town
and fen desperately in love with her.
He was a patient worker and he had
healthy bank roll Tho two weeks
OF tad-cabbins her about the town.
wining and dining her and buying
her a few little presents cost $500.
The day before he left. she introduced
him to a salesman in one OF those fly
by-night Broadway haberdasheries.
The salesman she said frankly
was to be her husband as soon an
he could get raised to S25 a week.
She saw no wrong accepting the
young Westerners attentions. He
wanted to have a good time seeing
the sights and she helped him. She
would not even permit him to hold
her hand-and yet she accepted
from him a siIken bit of lingerie
that cost $40 And yet I believe
IL was Kipling who said it was al
ways the woman who pays and pays
and pays
The most interesting Job in Man
haitian. IL one wishes to study the
night life of the city. is to be a
clerk in one OF the all-night drug
stores in the Tenderloin district.
Tho drug clerk sees a color OF life
fascinating and terrifying. He sees
beery buns, sodden wrecks OF the
gutter. whining mendicants. rich and
poor victims OF drugs and all tho
motley crowd OF the underworld at
Its vicarious occupation. The hu-
man tide that flows through the
revolving doors from midnight until
the first touch OF dawn has a char
acter all its own. and its waters
break in shoals Of comedy and trag-
edy untold This the drug clerk
can view with calm, pharmaecopic
eye Occasionally one finds a night
drug clerk a philosopher or poet
with no induration of boredom. On
the restless tido drifts wreckage OF
perhaps rich fIotsam and jetsam
that could well furnish a new tome
for De Maupassant or Poe.
Young Sam Ward. a New York
boy. was in the naval service. He
wrote a song entitled Your Boy
is on the Coal Pile Now" He sent
il to his father just as a Joke. His
father saw It's possibilities and took
it TO big New York publisher, who
was looking for a chance to get
away from sentimental war ditties.
AS a result the song has become
one of the winter hits and is played
in every cafe and vaudeville house
along the Great White Way. In
cidentaIly I asked a young enlisted
man what was the most popular
American song in the trenches. He
said il was Good Morning. Mr.. Zip
Zip Zip