The Washington herald., 1920-03-01
New York, City
BY o. o. Mcintyre

New York. Feb. ga page from
the diary of n modern Samuel
Pepys: Up and my poor head ach-
ing with the ague and fever. but
I fought 1t of and by breakfast
was well and did eat a newly
catched trout. 1t being kept a hol-
Fiday through the city. i walked to
The Mall and met Mr.. Atwell and
his hobbie-d -dehoy son and heard the
music. very sweet. My wife. poor
wretch. talking nightly about q
great coat or fur which It appears
Is cheaper to buy now but veer
the talk into other channels, very
noble.
Put out for a cinema hall to see
a widely talked of play actress
whose name is In the public jour-
nails constantly. and found her a
pretty-humored wretch !. with no
ability soever. and ! did ask b.
Mantle. the critic, IL the lady ever
had attempted stage roles or speak
ing parts. and he confided that she
was unable because she suffered.
Home, where l tried to catalog
my books alphabetically. but / have
so few it was silly and ] gave II
up. The streets are still dirty and
chimneys down from the storm and
very few visitors come. and i have
! ~ fA
bed at nine each night. and like II
mighty well. :
4 was frighted in the afternoon
when / heard a moan under the
window seat, and I called to my
neighbor. who came. but We could
find nothing and he suggested a
game OF dice and We played. los
ing ten shillings, and / believe him
to be a rotten-hearted. false man
and will have no more of his COM
pany.
All the late afternoon reading,
and my wife and Mistress Aimes
dined with me in our chambers and
/ made them laugh and merry dane
ing skirt dances in my house gown
and singing Marguerite falsetto. and
Hamisti MacLaurin, the Scotch fell
low, came in the dol-drums aid We
made him merry, too And so to
bed full of fine and pleasant
thoughts at midnight
+ The other evening a group OF New
Workers were dining at one OF those
westehester road houses run by a
hook rapacious looking ORR
entail 1t is a place Of garish splen-
dor, the air heavy with the acrid
smell of cigarettes. and the muscular
exertion of the "shimmy." The Ha-
waiian dancer-from Harlem-and
all the other fixtures of the old time
Broadway jazz houses are there. A
prize fighter came Id. He has been
living on past glories and drinking
all the booze he can find. With
him was the ingenue of hurlesque
and both were in their cups They
started to dance and jostled other
dancers. Finally they had the floor
to themselves because their actions
were so disgusting: The group OF
New Workers looked on for a time
and started to GO. "Whazza matter.
don't you like our .dancin'?" leered
the prize tighter. NO don't and I
don't like yeu." and so saying drew
back and knocked the prize fighter
out for the count. It developed
that the hero was a bookkeeper in
a hay and feed store on Canal
street and had never been In a road
house before. There are a lot OF
o. Henry stories in rea! lite.
Manhattan beggaTs are hiring
barkers now. Down on Brooklyn
Bridge beggar in a wheel chair
has an alert young man who So
licits aims from the passersby.
Come on" he cries. give some :
thing % a feller who is down and
cut. You may be down and out
yourself some day. Nobody knows"
Broadway is buying corn whisky
moonshined. so the reports go. for
Sl1 bottle. 1t is said that taxi
drivers arr in most cases the agents
and that they will not deliver il
until they have reached some lonely
spot in Central Park. Thus 1t is
that you get melodraIaa with your
shot of hooch these days-dark
spot in park. low hung moon.
stately trees. modern pirate.
Brr-r-r-r!