The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-12-28
M'UNTYRE SINGS
OF SQUALD BUT
HAPPY AVENUE
It Alone Is Unchanged,
While Others Take on
New Form.
BY o. o. MCINTYRE

lined with imposing private homes.
It was a driveway from Central
Park to Riverside Drive, filled with
gay and expensive vehicular equip
page.
On one Central Park west corner
stood one OF the finest Of New
Yorks massive apartment houses
with scores OF lawns, underneath
which was tunneled an arcade dot
ted with exclusive little shops OF
all description-from meat to hats.
And then the sweeping business
tide northward Tapped the street.
used to live on the street and the
other day beheld the change.
Easements that were once given
over to caretakers now bloom with
delicatessens, speciality gown. hat
and art shops and the like.
Fine homes are duplex apart
ments with stores on the first floor.
Automobile Row has reaches
around the corner from Broadway
and takes over almost one side of
the street with successory shops
and display warerooms.
Only few of the fine old homes
remain. The whitecapped nurses
with their extensively dressed
charges were gone. Plumed. foot
men who waited at grilIed doors
were supplanted by disheveled tax
icab drivers at the curb. The street
was humming with trade.
OF all streets Avenue A seems
to me to remain unchanged. 1t rs =
brooding street, where saualor is
relieved only by the gaiety OF its
inhabitants. For on Avenue A life's
little ironies are not taken to heart.
/ Fate seems to have played its prank
on each-and each is ready still
to laugh.
The paint on the buildings is
bit more scrofulous and stone
stoops grooved deeper. but Avenue
A is out nightly. winter and sum-
mer, en- masse. 1t is bantering
sort of cameraderie-a cameraderie
that inspired that popular old re-
| frain, The Bellies OF Avenue A."
which Ellie Fay used to sing. The
girls chew gum. and Earb in cheap
imitation OF their Fifth avenue
sisters. They call a dance "a spiel"
and the men say dis and dat"
and hate cops with undying fervor.
Yet underneath is the warmth Of
loyal friendship for those who have
cast their lot among the East Sides
Poverty Hollow.
AT the Hippodrome for several years
now. His ridiculous nose and tiny
hats with their sprouting feathers
have delighted thousands of children
and grown-ups. Most clowns are
melancholy folk IN their more sober
moments. Convey is not Although
follower of the ancient profession
of buffoonery. he spends his idle
hours studying law. He aspires to
a judgeship and to be taken serf-
ously.
The other day man giving an
address in downtown skyscraper
called up city editors and said he
had an important statement to
make. Reporters were sent. His
name was gilded on the door and
he announced that he was to MARI
a famous actress. The reporters
went to the actress to confirm the
report She had never heard of
the man. When the reporters went
back to the office his name was If
the door. and he had moved away,
having hired the Office only for the
day. IL 1t was a press agent stunt
1t was poorly handled, for not a
paper used a line.
| Inc nome OF care Brlggs, the
cartoonist, in New Rochelle. is
made OF old ship timbers. 1t is
called Blue Anchor" and is quite
one of the show places of the town
George NJ. Conan immortalized in
his forty five Minutes from
Broadway" One of Briggs old Wis
consin friends paid him a visit the
other day and was shown about the
house. He saw the private pool, the
billiard parlor. the bowling aYYey,
the conservatory abloom with rare
plants, but he had known Briggs in
the days of the OIL swimmIn' hole
and was a bit cynical where's
the settin' ROOM" he asked
My dog has taken UP the gay and
naughty life. In a nearby building
a group of English maids have aft
ernoon tea. Several times they
have called to him to join them and
ne drinks tea out of a saucer, eats
toast and marmalade and carries on.
something must have happened, for
they suddenly stopped their invita-
tons and now every afternoon at
he sits by the door and bowls.
intend to keep him, however. until
he develops the urge for breakfast
in bed.
Tex Rickard told the other day
of dinner that was given to old
Bob Fitzsimmons at a cafe in Four
teenth street. The bunch got to-
gether and bought the warrior a
huge. non-pawnable silver loving
cup. Johnny Pollock presented it.
After about the tenth whisky-they
drank them straight in those days
Pollock flashed the cup on the
emotional old fellow. Fitz stared
at the big and cleaning thing.
Then he glowered at Pollock and
yelled: Now. dammit you're gone
and made me cry!"
A new winter resort for New
York's social set has brought a
group of Palm Beach hotel proprie-
tors to town on the run. Society
is like bunch Of sheep and the
hotel men, wise in their years,
know 1t. Colorado Springs is be-
coming the mecca for those who
seek to dodge the rigors of winter
in town. Just forty eight hours
from New York, Colorado Springs
has started a campaign to start the
social trek Westward. Fifteen So
cial lights. 1t is announced in New
York newspapers, are to be quar-
tered at the Broadmoor there for
the winter and have shipped their
polo ponies.
Cafes are growing holder in their