The Washington herald., 1921-08-06

NEW YORK, Aug. 5.--At 3 a. NJ
Manhattan's hour Of deepest sleep
they creep from their rheumatic
beds to the subway kiosks, dull
eyed and with silent sort of res
ignation. Toothless, aged women,
with fiabby flesh turned yellow and
pasty--like sour dough. Express
trains whisk them under the sleep
ing island to the towering sky
scrapers on the southerly tip end,
aglow with the early morning fairy
land Of light s..
They represent New York's vast
army Of scrubwomen, who with mop
and pail daily shine acres upon
acres of mosaic and marble. On
creaking knees, their skirts be-
dragled and feet sopped, they
scrub and scrub until after dawn,
Then, like human moies, they bur-
row their way underground again
to their tenement hutches. Only a
few struggling night workers or
those on unusual early morning
errands see them.
In the big hotels they sleep in
shanty hunks on the roof, and year
in and out may never appear on the
street. In the days when New
Years eve was celebrated with the
popping Of champagne corks the ho-
tel charwomen had their big night
Tipsy guests tossed silver dollars to
see them scramble on the soupy,
slippery tiles. A cruel sort Of friv-
oltty, but the scrub women looked
forward to even this mild sort of
contact with fellow humans.
Some are married. and the ma
jority support others. The daugh-
ter Of an Equitable Building scrub
woman, 1t was revealed in court a
year ago, was a leading dancer in
a London theatrical company. But
the mother still scrubs, and in her
one room a reporter found newspa-
per pictures heralding her daugh-
ter's triumphs pasted on the rough
walls. A proud mother.
The scrub women run to type,
just as the venerable white-mus-
tached men who act as night cash
iers in the thousand and one side
arm lunch rooms run to type. On
the subway trains in the early
hours they keep up a forced sort of
| gayety II no one Is watching-cack-
| ling at feeble jokes and bantering
! one another-but back of II all is a
world weariness and an apathetical
hopelessness.
Very few realize how close Chan
| ming Pollock, who now writes plays
| and scenarios. came TO being a cir
Gus man. His earliest ambition was
to enter the circus business.
He applied to Buffalo Bill for a
| job with the Wild West show, after
| getting a letter of introduction to
| the famous Snowman. Buffalo Bill
| looked him over and said: "All
Oakley act She will shoot an ap-
pie off the top of your head"
Pollock shouted back: Who $
going to shoot what off of whose
head"'
Two summer shows are made up
/ OF idle actors who are splitting the
profits equally. Most of them have
been starred or featured and spend
their summers at Great Neck or in
| Europe. This year they fear that
next winter is not gong to be SO
good. And so, as one told me: I'VE
are going to grab 1t while we car
get it
DR. Frank Crane is merrily post.
carding his New York friends from
Paris where he has a table for two
on the boulevards and with Mrs
Crane is watching the world drift
by. DR.. Crane has a warm spot fol-
Paris. When he decided to quit the
ministry he had just enough money
to take him to Paris where he in
tended to map out his future. AnC
sitting along the boulevard came his
idea for a syndicated talk and like
most men who syndicate their wares
he found how valuable the credit o.
the delicatessen dealer is at times.