The Washington herald., 1920-04-10
New York City
By o. o. Mclntyrs

New York, April San avaiancne
of sordid Greek tragedy and Rus
sian peasant plays has descended
upon Manhattan. Dark eyed, sandal
clad heroines tear passion TO tatters
while auil appearing heroes spsw
away at the bones Of rats In dun
geons. Horror walks nightly and
all that Is uebased In human na-
ture Is held up for applause.
Theaters crowd against each 9TH
er in a disorderly' array ON Forty
eighth street running west from
Broadway to Fifth avenue. There
are Eve sin-soaked plays on one
side of the street. The old meio-
drama with It's silk mustached vii
Iian in riding boots. Big Jim's
daughter and honest old Charlie,
who permits the wronged woman to
hand him the fair-haired child are
all insignificant when compared to
the new brand of theatrical hokum.
A couple OF shrieks, a mad house
and the guillotine with q terrifying
plague for color are the chief in
gradients. Daughter comes home a
Lit weary from the ordeal OF poi
soning three OF her lovers. There
is n knock at the door. tGentle
plucks at the violin strings as
daughter goes to the door,. "Fa-
therr'-for IL Is none other than he.
She buries her head In his whis-
kers and sobs. He throws her to
the moor, takes q couple OF shots OF
vodka and asks for mother. Mother
can be heard gasping out her life
in the next room Daughter bars
fathers way and you can imagine
there is going to be trouble as ia
ther removes his great coat reveal
ing his prison stripes.
At last he tells daughter if she
will not cut mothers throat he will.
So dutiful daughter does. Sits it
from ear to ear. And the curtain
goes down on a horrible moan. One
manager of a sordid drama was
heard boasting at the Claridge
lunch table the other day that he
had a big matinee. Three faints
and five cases of hysteria," he de-
clared.
There are some queer little haunts
down around Brooklyn Bridge fire.
quented by people as strange and
alien as though transplanted from
another land. The Jieger Den is
hard by the bridge, dingy. dank and
shuddery. The gentle swish of the
East River can be heard along with
the din OF street cars. carts and
drays and pounded cobble stone. II
Is run by a one-eyed man who looks
as fierce as the widest fiction des-
perado. He even has the hook nose
and a gold ring in his left ear
Dockers, tradesmen from all over
the world and the news vendors
and street hawkers OF Park Row
come there to loaf. They used TO
sell a jigger of rum for 5 cents
hence the name. Now they sell hot
dishes famed in India and Mexico
Nearly every patron has a tattoocd
arm or chest A quarrel means only
one thing-a fist fight. They go
back in little blind alley in the
rear and pound each other until one
is insensible, then the one-eyed pro-
prietor comes out with a cold buck
ct of water, revives the victim and
perhaps induces them to shake
hands.
Boze Bulger. who Is now George
Horace Lorimer's personal envoy 20
Manhattan to represent the Satur-
day Evening Post, used to live In a
small city in Iowa. Two townsmen
came to New York to see the sights.
And they didn't want to be taken
for Iowans.
So in a ramble up Broadway they
saw sign: ice cream soda and
billiards" They were thirsty and
went in. One said he'd take an ice
cream sody" and the other reflected
awhile and said: III take n bill
ard" and he added to make Il
strong. The clerk saw a chance for
joke and mixed up a concoction
that was extremely unpleasant to
the taste and smell.
The patron shifted at II. slipped Il
and finally gulped II down. Then
he smacked his lips and said: IF I
wasn't such an old-time billiard
drinker, by gosh, I'd think almost
tfat this billiard was stale"