New-York tribune., 1921-10-02
The Bike Craze'' Be.
gan II, and Coli and
Motors FoItoWed. The
M an Who Boosted
That He "Neuer Took
q Vacation Is Nom
Practically Extinct

occasion to warn his readers following tbs
announcement of a successful run by automo.
bile all the way from Paris to Marseilles.
THE general opinion among those who want
to buy carriages is that they had better wait
until automobilism is perfected rather than
send in their orders now and run the risk of,
having to pay for antiquated vehicles. More
over, these carriages are not at their best
in winter, and it looks now as though by nex,
spring horseless carriages will be on the hivb
road to perfection
Turning now from the green countryside
back to the town and its timely topics of the
night. find that twenty-five years ayo
the first White Way was coming into BEING
under the double stimulus of Thomas Edson's
new lights and the new general interest in
play. Also the roof garden, fororunner of tho
modern cabaret was becoming live tonic q,
conversation and Of magazine articles New
York's first indoor ice skating rink had INST
been thrown open, and Oscar Hammerstein had
enlivened Times Square with a huge new pav-
house housing three theater auditoriuns under
one roof. (Now called the New York Roof
the New York and the Criterion)
The movies at this time were so new thst
their Importance was much less stressed than
that Of the X-rays. Lumiere. in 1895. had.
invented a successful cinema protector Ed.
son emerged the next year with his Vitascops
The first moving pictures shown were rather
crude, but they caught the popular fancy be-
cause they were novelty. Changed are the
times on the White Way from the DAYS when
young ladies wore balloon sleeves and bloomers
to these days of no sleeves at all and the
sidewalk ballet skirt. but nowhere nave the
revolutions been so startling as in the theater
district. If the latest statistics at my hand
are reliable, 100000 persons a day attended
New lork's motion picture shows-four times
as many as the salne estimate allows for the
legitimate theaters.
Oddly enough, the Gay white Way was no
more than getting well into It's stride when
the first complaints were voiced, II which
were heard the now burning hot controversial
words, personal liberty" l quote "Harpers
Weekly in evidence, from its review January,
1896, of the activities of the preceding year
President Theodore Roosevelt, Of he Police
(O--4it'ioSiSiA,
for the vigorous enforcement Of the Sunday
closing law. The Germans, most Of
whom had voted against Tammany in 1894,
were in revolt against what denla-
gogues called Rooseyelts assault upon per-
sonal liberty"
Not so long ago, surely For this was in
the same ycar when dramatic critic wrote
of Sarah Bernhardt that time has been sing
uarly amiable toward this mastcrful rest
less, exceptional woman,' the year when VIII
liam Jennings Bryan hit the trail as a speech
maker and William Mckinley set the prece-
dent for front porch campaigns. There was
trouble IN Cuba at the time and Captain Cen
eral Valevano Weyler decided to subdue IT.
Wei, time is yet amiable toward Nine.
Bernhardi. Bryan is yet talking. Front
porch campaigns are more IN vogue than ever
Disturbances have ceased in Cuba and The
last | heard Of General Wcyler be was yet an
idol of old Spain and had just printed a book
of memoirs.
Bat what that has changed in the mean
while is more notable in history than the
popular attitude toward play? Sum :; all
ap ard you find that Americans spend more
and more time out Of doors less and less "a
doors. They quit work earlier 10 play, shut
up shop on Saturday afternoons. ard cee-
brate every possible holiday. up to and IN
Guiding the sirk lay of cur old friend the
top of the column yonder-Cristoforo CO.
lombo of the Greenwich Village tam, the
bobbed hair, and the gray-mottled bathrobe
Briggs ought 20 DO cartoon on what this
old rounder thinks about as ne gazes out
from his tiyo-stofy perch. Ike a modern
siylite, down the Great White Way, with the
general air of village Boheman). But 70
resume:
We push up the clock an hour in summer
time TO save more daylight for motoring.
baseball and golf The gay set amuse them
selves afieId at their country clubs, leaving
the White Way largely to the proetarians.
The roof gardens that came in twenty-five
wears ago are going out again. The bicycle.
having gone out, is again coming in. There's
cycle for you--and 10 pun intended.
The famous cabarets are closing their
doors, and the night lie IS swiftly dying.
Even the amount OF time spend in theaters
is being cut-where one man spends two and
one-haf hours in legitimate playhouse. four
attend the shorter moving picture shows.
BasebalFs boom has continued likewise that
of the motor and golf In twenty-five
years they all have become national passions.
Meanwhile, the question of personal liberty