The New York herald., 1920-01-11
BEN DE CASSERES ON LIDS
HE SHOWS WHEREIN A CLOSED
ONE IS AN UTTER ABOMINATION
The Gentle Cync Takes Healthy Fling at the Hypocrisy
That Has Driven SO Many to Go
HavanaWard

Hesperides OF the New Freedom. Forl
what will it profit q. man If he gain the
wealth of all the Tonopahs and Klondikes
If he lose his life by swig OF wood alco-
hol and If he has got to eat sinkers at
two \. NJ?
The closed town is a grafter's town; the
open town is a law-abiding town. 1t needs
no pacifist with lactated veins to come
from Nebraska to tell us that excess is all
wrong Any man with a black eye from
Ninth avenue can tell us that.
The human race loves wine, beer, GOOD
whiskey, horse racing and poker-with va
rious healthy addenda thereto. The
strength of the West is founded on the
open town. Paris was wide open town.
Did it do France any harm? Verdun and
the Marne are the answer. The English
man has always been noted for his pur-
pose and ability to do as he damned
pleased. Ypres is the answer. The great
ness of New York-the super city OF his
tory--is built on Give and let live" Was
Italy ever a moral country? The Piave
and d'Annunzio are the answer. Empires
and cities do not "fall'' because they are
wide open; it is graft and the Prussianiza-
ton OF the individuals that weaken them.
The filings the Thing.
Humanity. like youth, will have it's fling;
and if we Americans cannot have it in
New York We go to Havana. If Havana
closes up by long reach activity from
America, the joyboys-that's you and me
and all of us who are red blooded--will go
further south or emigrate back to Europe.
Some of US, OF course, will go to Provi-
dence, r. I.
Havana is wide open today. Everything
Is going full blast. You are permitted to
spend your money there as you please
The busybody snout hasn't nuzzled there
yet. man can sit on the Prado and sip
his drink without covering it with a fig
leaf You can put your money on horse
there just as the King OF England does at
the Derby or The President of France at
Auteuil without camouflage. If you sit in
a Jacks" at half-past one your hat viii
not be tossed into the str,ets by a raiders
squad. II you do not feel inclined to- any
brain or complex-smoothers you can go to
the opera or go to bed at nine o'clock-no-
body cares. It's your own business. Sit
down at the sea end of the Prado and let
your feet puddle the Atlantic--you won't
even be asked to wear socks by an agent
| OF the Society for the Suppression of Feet.
Maybe you'll see Nine. Calve there read
| in, ba isit n- f;.l,
Or King Alexander Anderson dreaming of
more saloons to conquer. No matter. Each
one there does as he pleases, provided he
doesn't interfere forcibly with some one
else doing the same.
| / was in Havana when the town was
open" have never seen quieter place.
The peace Of the place passed my under
standing. / have found that crowds al
ways behave when there are no cops
| around
| There was Coney Island, for instance
and Brighton Beach, and old Manhattan
with King Sousa beating out one of his
marches. That little Havana, wide open,
has been crowded on Sunday with a half a
million people and not a single arrest
The moon climbed up from somewhere and
threw its grin into one hundred thousand
seidels of eight per cent. Many men sang
! in their glee at having smashed a week
of inhibitions. Every face was an open
town. The ponies were trotting around
| the Brighton track on weekday after
moons, and whether you beat it back to
New York on your leaky uppers or dned
at Manhattan on Jesse James in the fifth
race, you were just as even with life at the
end of the year--and had a little more in
the bank of your experience than Touch
Not, Taste-Not or Live-Not. They were
the days that are no more, when laughter
and JOY and freedom had no listeners-in.
The New Havana.
Havana used to be lazy old lady that
washed her linen in the Atlantic. Old
Morro, dark and menacing. guarded her
like n giant bulldog. AS she rose out of
the sea by some unaccountable associa-
ton of ideas she always recalled to me
the smile on the face of the Mona Liza
subtle, wan, mysterious. the smile of n
thousand secrets At night Caribbean
Venice rising from the sea with a thou
sand eyes. BY day the exact opposite of
New York; more like a beautiful Phila-
delphia that refused to awake. That was
a few years back. Today she Is the Eigh-
teenth Amendment come to Judgment.
The open towns of the early West made
celebrated and insalubrious by Bret Harte
have all moved into the films. Tonopah
/
movie" Mayor. No one ever wisSes them
back. They were not open towns<put open
+sewers. Monte Carlo Is oE OF date. Paris
has her lights out al half-past eleven =. NJ.
London is underground open. as usual.
Moscow is too busy readjusting natural
laws. Brussels is at work deodorizng
the German stencil. San Francisco is in
the mitt OF Goeffrey Bootleg, patron saint
of the Jacobins OF morality. Berlin is off
the tourist route of civilization
And lii old New York is only a
/ parched tongue Of land hanging from the
dried mouth of Yonkers.
Beyond Sandy Hook lies the three-mile
limit, where ono may get high-seas over
on the good ship Liberty. and beyond the
good ship Liberty lies Havana, the new
capital OF New York city.
Eden was a wide-open town. And what
in Genesis will come out in Revelation.
Stick aroundl
a word TO the wise rs not sufficient these
days-it must be in bottle. or in Havana.