The Washington herald., 1921-01-06
New York City
Day by Day
BY o. o. MCINTYRE.

NEW YORK, Jan. 5.-The newly
built theaters are not separating
the smoking rooms for men and
women. It has been found that
men and women like to smoke to-
gether between the acts and dis
cuss the progress of the play. There
Is little hesitancy these days in New
York women smoking befofe
strangers. They light up with the
same sangfroid Of the men.
Back in my town, and early i'm
pressions are hard to shake, the
women who smoked in the presence
OF men lived in the shuttered houses
across the railroad tracks and were
rarely seen in public except when
they came down town in closed cabs.
Consequently 1 was, to say the
least, confused while killing a lit
tie time in a Forty-secOnd street
theater smoking room to have a
gorgeous creature in a pale, SHIN
mering evening gown approach me
and say: May I bother you for
the loan Of a cigarette? My escort
has mine and has been called to the
telephone"
I offered her my case, she select
ed one and retired to a divan, where
the japanese boy attendant fur
nished the light. 1t was easy to see
that a man would have made mis-
take to take advantage of her re-
quest and force a conversation. She
was simply out of cigarettes and
asked for one.
The smoking rooms of theaters
m with unusual types between acts
There was one young man who had
a wrist watch on each wrist. He
offered the explanation to one of
his group that one was New Jersey
and the other New York time. One
can hardly constrain from perpe-
trating the pun that he had plenty
of time on his hands, but 1 suppose
it would be better left unsaid.
A Barnoess looking wOmen-those
with foreign accents always appear
to be to be titled-puffed away at a
very small sized cigar in a pipe like
holder while a dapper little man
waved his arms and spoke in volu-
BILE French. There was clergy
man, too, but he looked at the pic
lures on the wall as he smoked.
Several young girls with bObbed
heads, brazenly puffed their ciga-
rettes- And, o yes, the lady did not
return my cigarette.
There are only two hotels in New
York that have rooms numbered
with 13. OF course, this is in defer
ence to the superstition. Many of
10 f-Nn nrofh n
floor. A recent police court case in
Harlem centered about the IS su-
perstition- A tenant, whose apart
ment was numbered 13, scratched
the number of his door as often as
the landlord painted it on. When
he was ordered evicted he said to
the Judge: There I told you that
number was Unlucky."
A strolling musician, playing a
violin, walked up a block which was
labeled: Hospital Street, No I'm
necessary Noise" After he had
played awhile, a policeman stop
ped him NO noise on this street,
he said, pointing to the signs. 1T
ees not noise-it is music. )" Bah!
you and your country make me
seek" and he broked his fiddle over
his knee and walked haughtily
away.
The side streets in the Twenties
are filled with workers in the cloth
ing industry who are on strike. They
walk up and down, gather in little
groups and sit along the curb. Some
Of them are strike pickets, but most
of them are lust killing time The
streets are filled with hawkers who
offer all sorts of tempting wares
from hot coffee to toys. The strik
ers haggle over the prices, but are
ready buyers. The street hawking
industry has grown so good that
some of the strikers have turned to
II and are selling their fellow
workmen.