The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1920-09-04
SIDE LIGHTS OF GAY
new YORK

In New York City, the metropolis
of the United States, the wonder child
OF civilization, strange and interest
ing conditions exist. More Jews live
iii New York City than inhabit the
Holy Land. More Irishnen than in
any other place except Dublin. More
Greeks live in New York than live in
Athens. More Italians are found in
this great city than there are in
Rome. More Negroes infest this city
than any other place in America. If
it were not for Theodore Roosevelt's
theory of Americanization, the flags
of all nations would hy from the old
City Hall Aagpost
--I1;;nY m -oiidtS Ghna tSsat-tas- his his
torical old Chinese Theater has been
converted into rescue mission. The
top floor is used for religious serv-
ices. The lower floor, which is under
the ground and which used to be the
battle ground of the Chinese Tong
warriors, is used as a sleeping place
for homeless BUNS and human dere-
licts. Over a hundred thousand way
ward souls were housed and fed i'll
that spot during the last year. A
strong, healthy black man is porter
for the buns. He serves coffee and
! rolls and cleans up after their restless
sleep. We imagine this gentleman
needs more rescue services than the
buns themselves.
Times Square, which is the throb-
bling heart of Manhattan Island, is
named Times Square because the
Times building is owned and con
trolled by the New York Times,
/ which in turn is owned and controlled
by Southerners from Chattanooga,
/ Tennessee. The influence of that
great newspaper was strong enough
to change the. name of that place
from Longacre to Times Square. We
wonder if a colored newspaper out
in Harlem will ever have enough
pressure and influence on the City
Council to cause them to rename one
of the squares of that district in honor
of it.
On the ffty-fourth floor OF the
/ famous Woodwork building is erect
ed an observatory where one may
look far into Brooklyn, farther into
Jersey and peer into the horizon of
the Bronx and witness the simmer
ing landscape OF the dramatic West
Side. You may look downward and
see the Pickering lights of this arti-
fetal place OF existence; you may see
humanity, antlike, creeping along the
stone pavements of New Amsterdam.
There it lies, like a glittering, CLASSY
serpent, twisting and twining itself,
python-like, around the seething
maelstrom of human hearts that have
been caught by the lure of New
York" The artist would be inspired
to dip his brush in the iridescent col
lors of the rainbow and paint his
masterpiece upon the canopy OF
heaven. The Muse would strike the
lpoets heart and rhyme and imagna-
ton would run rampant from his
trenchant pen. The minister could
preach magnificent and l-stirring
sermons, gathered from his vision
from this real mansion in the sky"
and yet, way up in this rarified atmos-
phere, where the souls of men strike
a communion with nature, | heard the
meanest man of them all, redneck
! Southerner from Georgia, cry out in
his fiat nasal brogue. Il see there are
lot of 'niggers' up here" Ny in
spiration faded my tongue cleayed
to the roof OF my mouth, but | finally
gurgled out in a choking, sobbing
voice, This is the nearest to heaven
you'll ever get; when do you return
to your land of hell?" He did not
lansWer.