New-York tribune., 1921-11-13
SOME FOLKS CALL THIS HOME
Illustrations BY NORMAN JACOBSEN

source of her information. The woman
answered: HE couldn't say anything else.
The man with him was the author OK the play.
saw them together"
If there is new roomer, Or one nat in
yited to the late gathering, the murghur aof
voices, peals Of laughter, washing Of dishes
and quiet good night" are sometimes re-
sented, but never or very seldom complained
about.
A visitor from the West said after hearing
the people Of Theaterville talk during a span
Of number Of weeks: "Do all New Yorkers
talk about eating so much? 1t seems to me
they are talking about fovd half Of the time"
Many of the houses in the theater district
provide one-ring gas stove. Breakfast, and
often luncheon, is cooked on these stoves, but
most of the roomers go to a neighboring
restaurant for dinner; Consequently, dining
places are much discussed. Almost every day
a new eating place is opened. Most of the
former saloons on Eighth Avenue and in the
intersecting streets between Thirty-eighth and
Fifteth streets, between Sixth and Eighth
avenues, have become restaurants, bakeries or
soft drink shops. One block in the Forties
on Eighth Avenue counts all shops but three
occupied by some sort of eating place. The
merits and prices Of these places are discussed
by the people living in the district, so it be-
comes q natural foundation for conversation
without any gluttonous origin.
During the greater part Of the year, if one
is not a very sound sleeper, rest is impossible
in Theaterville until well after midnight AS
counted on a cross-town block at one time wait
fnv hn FINS rfoiy On xr,,or
the theaters are not so numerous, like Forty
first and Forty-third, the automobiles wait at
the vehicle exits for number Of the theaters
in Forty-second Street. The chorus of footing
is not conducive to sleep. With the many
night parties at the Astor and the theaters in
Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth streets and the
Astor exit also west of Broadway, to say moth
ing Of those east of that avenue, the term
"noise factory" is applicable as far as Fiftieth
Street. Some of the most inexcusable racket
which starts profanity among the sleepers in
the district is made by the taxi drivers wait
ing for late fares from the hotels, clubs, hooch
places and all night restaurants. These driv-
ers gather in groups on the sidewalk or in
the middle of the street under an electric light
and shoot craps or compete in lung expanding
exercises over some favorite topic. The numer-
GUS uCWlS OI pTOCSSL GullCCeu from various VIII
dows have little effect on the taxi outlaws.
Scarcely an early morning but. the police re-
ceive number of complaints which are only
inter,nittently effective.
On a Saturday night when a play has
ended it's run, is a time when sleep must be
deferred by the neighboring tenants. All the
scenery and property, as well as the mountain
of trunks must be removed that night to be
shipped away. Huge trucks roll up, trunks are
banged the sidewalk, the property man
shouts his orders, engines groan and exhaust
and noise is inexhaustible. One night last
winter three plays in a group of theaters in
one street sent forth their productions for bet
ter business elsewhere, and the last truck de-
parted at o'clock on Sunday morning.
The speed-breaking mail cars crash through
the streets without restraint, shrieking the
while and making the stranger who is not
hardened to the noise feel that drivers recog-
nize nothing but their license to make an in
fernal racket, without considering that another
human being is in existence. A young girl