The Washington herald., 1920-04-04
New York City
By o. o. Mcintyre

New York. April .. = The most
talked-of gossip Of the week In
Gotham concerned those amazins
shirts and collars worn by Georges
|Carpentier, that eminent son OF
France. Next In Importance was the
proper pronunciation Of his name.
His bustling little manager. Des-
champs. set New York right. II IL
pronounced Kar-pent-tyea. and NO
syllable 10 accented.
Carpenter. when he arrived. wore
fds famous scorpion shirt-with, q
collar Of the same silk. 1t was
brown and sreenNin spots of differ
ent size, and the effect at a dis
tancs was the moan of a high au-
tumn wind. but close up those who
! could stand IL were reminded Of a
| racing car galloping away from a
motor cop.
The next morning for breakfast
1 Carpenter appeared in the break
fast room of the Biltmore, where
the pressmen and cameramen were
waiting. in his pink symphony. 1t
was. q salmon pink-soft, shaded
like the distant glow of the boilers
| of an Ohio River steamboat. And
| there were just a few little green
dots like green lanterns TO complete
the picture.
| That afternoon he appeared in his
| famous shirt of black sateen with
its shining collar. 1t was somber
Ii hi
marvelousfy pallid face and glisten-
ing hair. DR.. Berthold Baer, the
! Broadway undertaker's singer OF
| poems, Immediately was inspired to
dash off an ode to 1t.
And so it was, day after day
Carpenter brought along some six
ty shirts. all made Of the most ex-
pensive French silk, and the prod
ucts of the most aristocratic silk
worms.
Issac Marcossen, the magazine
writer. whose radiant shirts caused
Lord Northcliffe to address him as
His Radiance. I. Marcosson. took
one look at Carpenters shirts and
fired three Of his 'shirtmakers forth
with. His purple and tan skirt that
once caused a runaway on Fifth
avenue and caused a frightened old
lady to jump off a Fifth avenue bus
now occupies a prominent position
on a West End dumping ground.
His red shirt-as fiery as a
dragons tongue-was ghostly in
comparison to Carpenters silver
cloth and gold dotted creation. Only
Beaunash. of the theater program
could describe it.
Last Sunday every hanson along
Fifth avenue was busy. Not a cab
horse slept between the shafts OF
one of those doomed but delectable
vehicles. not a cabby sat somnolent
along on his box in the cab-rank
1t proves that spring is here. All
4 winter the Manhattenese will rush
or In taxicabs and it is poor picking
for the cab driver. Most of the
hansoms drifted through the park
and usually each hanson contained
two persons. Oftenest the two were
arranged after the fashion originally
devised for the Garden of Eden, and
Encouraged by Noah's official dis
positions for the passenger list OF
the ark. When swift and shin
ing motor cars swept past. these
dawdlers looked at the prosperous
occupants without envy-perhaps
with compassion. On the first day
Of spring in New York the race is
not to the swift nor the prize to
sixty-horsepower. Even the weather
beaten visages of the cabbies ex-
press an unwonted amiability and
one at least of them scorned to
profiteer-beyond the limit of the
law anyway. And If the weather is
fine this Sunday there will be scores
of these little low-neck hacks out
trying to remind people of Paris
before the war.
A group of business men from
New York went to Niles, Ohio, last
week in a special train to see the
new factory just completed by the
American Tire Corporation and to
see the demonstration of their new
nonblowout automobile tire. II
was a representative gathering OF
good fellows and on their way back
they heard that at one stop a sherif
was to invade their car and search
for what might be spirituous
liquors. Well. at the station the
sheriff was there. by gravy, and his
badge was all slicked up and
everything. He went from bag to
bag on the racks overhead and
finally he came to a big steamer
valise. Sheriff don't touch THAR
said one of the New Yorkers. It'll
do my duty. consarn you," he
snapped-and let go of thin
spray OF amber.
"All right so ahead but you do
so at your own peril" he was told.
IL amt skeered Of nary man in
shoe leather" was the retort.
He opened it. There was a buzz
and then a swarm of bees de-
scended from the bag on the sher-
iff's head and he left the car in a
jfffy.
'Stung." shouted the crowd at the
station. And then the train rolled
away.
1t is amusing to hear the applause
of crowds in the movie theaters
when a debonnair villain or a roll
licking hero drinks a cocktail. It
is something like showing a picture
of Col. Roosevelt in the old days.
But all of this demonstration Is not
confined to the cinema
No more reserved, refined. unde-
monstrative audiences in New York
can be found than those which crowd
to see Drinkwater's Abraham Lin
coin" 1t might be supposed that
many would like their nip or toddy
in private. but would refrain from
aligning themselves with the bibu-
lous.
The ore big laugh in the show
comes when Lincoln's Cabinet is
considering replacing Mcclellan as
| commander of the Union forces. Lin
coin speaks of sending Grant down
to take charge.