The Washington herald., 1920-12-26
5MASCOMES HIGH
BUT MANHATTAN
MUST HAVEIT
City Takes Holiday Seri-
ously and Is Season When
Even Bankers Unbend.
By o. o. MCINTYRE


- led with electrically lighted !!
! mas trees 1t is difficult for
York not to be brimming with i
- uletide spirit 1t is a city |
a- takes Christmas very seriously
md gaiety runs at high tide.
Many of the theatrical attractions
will have daily matinees all Xmas
week, which is tough on the actor, ,
but most of them who are working |
are so thankful that they have Jobs |
that they would be willing to give |
matnees for milkmen at g. m
The hotel dining rooms do their |
biggest business OF the year. for
the New Yorker would rather take |
his guests out to dine than dine l
them at home The few cabarets
viii give souvenirs and are adver-
tising special attractions
This Is the season when staid New
Yorkers unbend- The banker pats
the nevsboy on the head and slips
him . half dollar Just like the pic
tures in the story book There are
q thousand benefits for this. that
and the other.
Madison Square will have its huge
Xmas tree and the shawled mothers
from the East Side will bring their
children. sing hymns and take home
baskets Of food. The Ghetto bub-
bles with happiness for the Lady
Bountifuls from the avenue will
make their annual pilgrimages in
shiny limousines and hand out gifts
with lavish hands.
- Down in Wall Street the banks
1 and brokerage houses give their
yearly bonuses and Wall Street
clerks and stenographers go on
their annual splurge- For weeks
the elevator men have had their
cigar boxes trimmed with holly on
display and are especially courteous
In the buildings where they have
twenty and thirty elevators the
amounts raised by the elevator men
run into thousands
In New York one feels Christmas
in the air-bus conductors, subway
guards and all employees who meet
the public exude a spirit of friendli-
ness that will die down after the
beginning of the New Year. 1t is
reported that the booueggers are
starting a propaganda to have d
Christmas every month. In a year
most of them could quit and 60
down to Philadelphia and laugh at
the mint
The amount spent by men or
means for Christmas gifts would
keep an ordinary family for several
year. At an ultra jeweIry shop
the other day a very rich man
stepped in and looked at watches.
He bought twenty-four, costing
NO each, to be engraved and sent
rttcular friends and big execu-
in his employ.
mother story is told of a money
bags who bought studded
xgold mesh bags for his five daugh-
tiers and had prepared five certified
checks for 100000 each to put into
them- And yet unhappily he is
divorced, lives at a club and has
not seen his wife or children excep,
at long intervals for several years.
The man who lives in a frst-class
apartment house in New York suf-
fers severe strain on his purse
through tipping. 1t is folly not to
tip every employe of the building,
from the superintendent down to
the ash man. Those who do not
generally suffer little inattentions
through the next year that cause
regrets.
Christmas indeed comes high, but
New York must have it.
southern cooking is the epicurean
vogue in New York. Any restau-
rant that hangs out the sign South
ern Cooking secures instantaneous
patronage Somehow the New York
er's appetite is whetted by talk
Of corn bread" beaten biscuits"
-fap jacksS and other dishes that
burgeon below the Mason and Dixon
line There has been opened in Har-
lem yam market. where the de-
lectable, mountaineering yam, the
inevitable accompaniment of pos
sum. is finding a big sale. In the.
Forties the other day counted If
teen restaurants that advertised
Southern Cooking" and there are
amy number of Southern tea rooms
with fat negro mammies turning
Pancakes in the window.
George Ade is in town from In
diana 1t was in 1902 that Ade
wrote his Sultan of Sulu," and yet
this year there Is almost a parallel
in the case Of Robert A. McClain,
the Massachusetts, army man, who
says he is the successor to the Sui
tan of Llang Llang. a small island
u
then a Marine, helped subdue a
Moro uprising, during which he res
cued the Sultan. Then the cid Sui
tan died, after a royal decree pro-
claiming McCiain his successor and
bequeathing to him several pearl
fisheries, valuable cocoanut palms,
q harem and a palace.
The luncheon hour at the Ritz
Carlton brings out the flowers of
New York's debutante crop. Daily
the smartest and most beautiful
girls of society float through the
Ritz's tiny foyer-it is small to
maintain the atmosphere of exclu-
siveness- The genius of Albert KeI-
Ter, who conducts the Ritz, is appar-
ent in the attention to detail. There
is never the sound of a dish or the
r'etter OF silverware. Each waiter
t speak French, English, Ital-
and German and he must knw
Ingredients of every dish and
ibe 1t in an appetizing way.
cad waiter bows low and then
you over to the captain, who,
ushering you to a table, waits
you are seated and then bows
Offering you a menu. He then
carts until you summon him.
alters or captains are not al
lowed to stand and watch a patron
eat. Those are merely high-lights
OF service-but 1t is this marvellous
attention to detail that has made
the Ritz a synonym for class. The
Ritz is famous for its desserts, and
Incidentally the man who fashions