The Washington herald., 1919-12-20
NEW YORK CITY.
By o. o. McNTYRE

New York. Dec. 1s.-Hardened must
be the stomach which can drink coffee
from dusk to dawn; but it Is being
done In New York. Despite the fact
that the Roosevelts are establishing
chain of coffee houses In New York.
a great deal of moral support must
be given to give tone to the coffee
house in the public eye.
The coffee house as a place of meet
ing Is an Eastern European institu-
ton which has been domesticated On
the East Side. 1t has already earned
uotoriety through the recent declara-
ton of a mag .strate that men were
As likely to stay away from their
homes all night over the cup of coffee
as over the glass of strong waters.
A few months ago. before virtue
had been thrust upon a bibulous and
unrepentant island. the police hunted
in saloons and dives for criminals. but
now they go direct to the coffee par
lors where the blase Mahattan crooks
gather and drink coffee and eat pastry.
The coffee house is already in dis
repLte, even as the rum parlor. and
before long the raiding AK may de-
scend upoa the loganberry lounge and
the sarsaparilla saloon. or course, the
Roosevelts Will make every effort to
see that their coffee houses are the
zenith of responsibility.
They will try to make them the
haunt of literary and Artistic circles,
and for the debutantes and young men
whose papas are rich. The conee
house as a rendezvous for criminals
merely goes to further the idea that
eventually the police will have to try
to curb wicked and dissolute men
rather than destroy in succession the
places where they assemble.
New York has many shifting circles of
intellectual and other leanings. But
once settled in a congenial coffee
house, they may be driven away by
the intrusion of Grant sightseers and
crooks just when the reputation OF
the place becomes profitable.
The highest flights of the movie
writer's fancy are exceeded by the
episode" staged in real life in the
Upper West Side in broad daylight
the other day. A poultry dealer. with
$4,000 in u bag. was held up just as
he had entered his automobile to go
to his place of business; his bag with
its contents was taken away from him
at the points of real revolvers. and
the bandits were whsked away-ban-
dts are always whisked-in n trice.
and there YOU are. Dull provincial
minds like mine are amazed that
poultry dealer could have $4,000 The
poultry dealers l used to know lived
across the creek and cut their own
hair.
Wine. women and song" complains
n comedian in a Broadway show, has
been changed to near beer. chicken
and Jazz" And many true words are
spoken in jest.
The Bronx has a real cabaret artist
"a rival of the noted Cherry Sisters,
so rotten they were good. The in
imitable Jazz vocalist OF the Bron-nix
is known as the Great Ginzburs.
Americas sweetest singer. He Is
often stopped in the middle Of song
with n request for the loan of his
ears for use as mudguards on a pa
irons flivver.
II is not unusual for the Great
Ginzburg to he interrupted also by the
noise of huge cuspidors being rolled
down the staircase. which ends near
the platform on which he imperson-
ates the world stars. for the walters,
at the cabaret where Ginzburg holds
forth. pull lot of rough stuff.
A fog horn on a North River ferry
is musical compared with Ginz-
burg's voice. and until you hear him
sing Kisses" you have missed much
The other night a patron took Ginz-
burg out TO lunch after the show and
he searched for fish bones in the as
paragus That is the kind OF guy
he is. But the Bronx loves him.