The Washington herald., 1920-05-29
New York City
3, o. Q. Melntyre

New York. May 2s.-The Noon
Hour Cabaret-just a shade more
respectable than the honky-tonks--
are springing into amazing popu-
larity in the cheap cafes of Broad
way and side streets. All the types
so familiar. in the days when night
life fiourished are to be seen.
The girls with the liquid-whiten-
ed faces, the Iush-dips. drug addicts
confidence men. check-kiters, rock
getters. gun-molls, moll-buzzers
and all the old underworld crowd
who studied the menu cards in the
o:teries in the old days on this
incomprchensible island of unrest.
The festivities start at noon. The
respectable element Is made up OF
the slim, oyerdressed, overpainted
| models from Garment Town in the
neighborhood. From the cheap the
atrical boarding houses the chorus
girls rush for their noon break
fast and dance.
The men, the clothing statesmen
from one store, the. fioormen from
another. silk salesmen check their
brief cases and become men, about
town for an hour. The syncopating
jazz band starts the midday life.
The man just mods his head with
easy familiarity toward the girl
and soon they are embraced. cheek
to cheek, and shivering a shimmy
with the abandon of a freezing ne
gro.
Those who supposed drink would
stop the suggestive dances will get
a new slant at the MONDAY cabaret
They are worse than ever before.
They are amazingly vulgar. At
times couples stop and sway In a
passionate embrace with lips press
ed tightly and eyes rolling.
The air is heavy with Turkish
and Milady's perfuned cigarettes.
Now and then a silver flask is pro-
duced and the appetite whetted. II
the flask is plentifully filled the
girls do not always go back to work.
They telephone and plead a head
ache.
The dance holds sway for an
hour. Then comes the hurried looks
at wrist watches and each man ana
girl pays an individual check and
hastens back to the drab grind of
the day. Those who do not work
lounge around waiting for dusk.
when they go searching for new
thrills.
A sudden shower in New York
produces strange result. Instead
of making the streets deserted look
ing, II fills them with startling
activity. New Workers are the most
T1nhi ihinnQ nannln IN hn
where-not excluding London. They
like to splash around in the wet.
And then business grows dull in
the shops during a shower and the
clerks get time off to do an errand.
The boss decides to go to the club.
the stenographer goes shopping
and the town seethes as the rain
patters.
had not been dow nto MaS's
Busy Bee on Nassau street for sew
eral years until the other day. Max's
| eatery is for newsboys. GRAND BOYS
and bootblacks of the down town
section. His prices have not been
affected by the high cost of livin~
One may still get many eatable
things there for a penny-an ice
cream cone. n hot waffle. a thin
sandwich. a cup Of coffee and so on.
And do not worry about poor Max.
The oil portrait which hangs over
his door showing his silken mus
tache. blue-black jowls and hair
reached back gives him an air of
prosperity. 1t even reveals the
huge diamond stud in his shirt.
Max is wealthy. He lives far away
I from the rnaddening throng and
motors to town now and then to see
Just how busy the bees are.