The Washington herald., 1921-07-30
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and mystery lurk along the water
fronts after night. The red lights
Of the police launch, like cleaning
eyes. blink in the fog. The rum
smuggiers from tramp steamers use
little skins, and when a craft comes
suspiciously near they push their
cargo overboard--and- chuckle. q.
Shapeless figures in oiIskins and
sou'westers nit shadow-like about
the dock spiles. awash with swirl
ing sluggish water and green with
weed and ooze. In the little shore
huts are the smoking oil lamps
throwing of a saffron glow and
through the windows may be seen
desperate faces. Chinese, Lascar.
American. Faces yellow, brown and
white. Snarling and scowling.
They gamble with cards and dice.
and drink deep OF the bootlegger's
lightning drams. Hardy men. naked
to the waist. spewed UP from the
darkest dives of the Orient and
western Europe. The mean. crooked
little streets that run away from
the water fronts are lined with
SCARED. tumble-down buildings that
shoulder each other into a Jagged
profile against the sky, like grim
ming, toothless mask of evil.
There Is the Glamour of strange
tongues and the effluvia of unclean
bodies and stale cooking. Under
one of the piers by q faint ray
from the moon I saw three old
women, sodden and mouths agape.
asleep in skiffs. Great cats pounce
out from dark doorways. and now
and then a slippery form flashes
before a lozenge OF light and 10
gone-like a bubble in the tideway.
The police travel in pairs through
the district and with their gun
triggers cooked. The stringed lights
across the bridges revealing the
fitfui play OF lights and shadows
on the water give an uncanny,
eerie effect. One almost holds ones
breath awaiting the agonizing
shrek and hideous Hopping OF
some knitted wayfarer.
The 2o-cent lodging house is on
every corner. dilapidated and dirty
with the CRIME of years. Washing
hanbs unabashed from each win
dow, for the nondescript rabble that
patronizes the lodging places wiring
out their shirts nightly. 1t Is a
desperate sort of squalor and yet
these denizens are vibrant with
red-corpuscled health. There is not
a doctor in the neighborhood. When
one falls in pain. 1t is generally by
the knife or pistol. and a Changing
ambulance carries him away to the
city hospital.
Raymond Hitchcock declares IL is
a distinction to be broke on Broad
way. He has just filed a voluntary
petition in bankruptcy and listed
$3.50 worth of clothing as his sole
assets. when the reporters romped
up to get the details at the theater
where Hitchy is playing they found
him clad simply in oxfords. trousers
and beeveedees. But. of course. II
was a hot night. He said he had a
regular suit.
As the reporters advanced. Hitch
cock raised his right hand in the at
titude OF Ajax defying Jack Demp-
scy. .'Say no more, oh chroniclers
of our times" he thundered. 81
know whence thou art come. II is.
-dSt hhoy
been kicked in the pocketbook. Yea.
boys. verify I'm busted"
His financial troubles date back
to his excursion into the producing
fields with a company at which he
was the head. The road tour broke
him. and a former employe now de-
cIares that Hitchcock made a verbal
agreement to pay him a salary for
another year.
ct know OF only one producer who
formerly engaged managers by the
year" said the comedian. "He is
in Bellevue Hospital. and every day
he leaps from cot to cot about that
institution. singing, 'Tweet! Tweet!
I'm a lark"
A certain New York pulpiteer, who
delights in breaking into the first
pages. sent a mimeographed notice
TO Park Row that he was going to
attend a prize fight in Madison
Square Garden. He added that he
would occupy a ringside seat. The
sport scribes got together and in all
their accounts next day was the line:
Among those at the ringside was
the Rev. -" And not a single
one mentioned his name.