The Washington herald., 1920-03-18
New York City
By o. o. MeIntyre

New. York, March iI.--Tne hiaito
was thrilled at the yesperai hour
the other evening to see a giant Gen.
tral once man dragging swearing
little ticket scalper through ,ne
White Way to a police station. The
scalper was loudly demanding his
fur-lined overcoat. feeling almost
indecent in his brown zigzag striped
suit,
The detective had an evening OF,
and dropped in to get two seats to
a show. The box ONCE price was
ss.3o--entirely too much for ANY
show on Broadway--and the scalper
wanted six ripe. red, royal berries
for each--or in hinterland talk--S6
The Central ONCE man yelled muir
der, leape over tho counter, snatch
ed the tickets and the scalper, and
took them all to court.
Subsequently the scalper was dis
missed. The detective was wrong
Judge Rosalsky has declared the
odrinance to thwart ticket specu-
lators void. And rightly so. The
fault Is with the theaters. Not all
Of them, to be sure, for quite a num-
Der of managers are lighting tIcnet
specializing. but they are in the mi
nority.
Let a good show come to town
and the best seats for the advance
sale may be found in large blocks
at the spectators. The pubiic Is
bunked, but not so much by the
speculator as by the theaters. who
do not make more of an effort TO
balk 1t.
It Is proverbial that the best
dressers and the best spenders on
Broadway are the theater treasur-
, ers or box Office men. II Is also
proverbial that they are the most
insolent Only the bars in Won't of
which they stand save them from
| a licking a day. Now the theater
treasurer is not a highly paid en-
ploye. At best he does not make e
more than SIS or 800 a week. and
any Broadwayite will tell the world
THAT you can't do much spending on
that.
The tickets could only get to the
spectators through the box Office
men and there is no reason to be-
lieve that he would extend such a
courtesy gratis. He was never
known to extend any sort Of cour-
tesy whatsoever to the public unless
the public reached in and tweaked
his nose
Ticket speculating is driving
thousands to the movies. Broad
way is lined with the spectators
who from the queer little cubby-
holes cry out that they have the
best seats at the best shows. They
are men who drive hard bargains
ell
profits may be judged that one
speculator who had a little corner
in big Broadway drug store. The
building was to be torn down,
Rather than be ousted he bought
not only the drug store, but the
building.
a writer was talking at lunch the
other day with a man who was tell
ing OF brand of synthetic whisky
now being distilled by a famous
tavern of New York's underworld
IL is said even to cary a label.
What does 1t taste like?" ASKED
the writer.
Just like gnawing furniture /"
said the other.
The author is slowly coming into
MS own in the movies. AT the
Strand last week the name of LEROY
Scott, the author of the play, an
peared in electric lights over the
entrance In equal proportion to the
name OF the play. The stars name
dld not appear except in Small type
on the program.
Brooklyn Bridge at dusk is the
best place in Manhattan to get a
view OF the city. Dusk simplifies
the prospect, washes away the less
er units. fills in the foreground with
obIiterating shadow, leaves only the
monstrous sierras Of Broadway Jag
ged against the vault. 1t deepens
the incredible panaroma into broad
sweeps of gold and black and pea-
COCK blue. In the full light of tho
sun, Manhattan's bristle of detail IL
TOO great to carry in the senses
After nightfall a mellow light fails
over the city and can be seen for
miles around-an electrical tribute
10 commerce. For the light comes
from the thousands of electrical
signs that hang all over the island