The Concordia sentinel., 1921-06-11
The Girl In the
Thin Coat
By WILL T. AMES


Broadway, where it traverses the
upper West side, els divided into TWO
parts. Between brace of ample
thorOughfareS lies a long, slender park
way, u string of narrow parallelo-
grams of fenced greensward, scored
across at regular intervals by the
transverse streets.
Down the westerly side of this
double street fits, each morning an
amazing horde Of motor vehicles-pri-
vately owned cars of all degrees save
that of shabbness, and squadron upon
squadron of taXicabs; while up the
easterly side hurries u somewhat
smaller stream, largely consisting OF
taXis whose drivers are huStling for
their share of the going down" busi-
hess.
For here are passing on their way
TO the days affairs, tens of thou
sands of those who scOrn to battle
their way downtown by subway or l.,
and whose time is worth far too much
in dollars and cents to be spent on
dawdling surface cars.
To the humble citizen who cOOls
his heels beside the parkway railing
at one of the cross streets, awaiting
perhaps one of the very occasional
trolley cars which, lower down, sheer
off 10 penetrate the squalid Tenth
avenue region, there is a Haunting
arrogance about that rushing river of
mr. hn NJ mi
Gus pride, cynicism or the blues, ac-
cording to his temperament
PatrOlmen Dan Travers, trim, slim
and clean-eyed, loved, better than any
other duty that fell to his lot, the Oc-
casiOnal detail from eight to nine
O'Clock, at the Eighty-secOnd street
crossing. For 1t filled with Joy the
breast of the amiable Dan to raise his
glOved hand against the progress of
dozen grandiOSe limOusines or
breathless taXis and bring them to an
impatient halt while some skinny.
legged little girl of nine led her six
year-Old brother over the crossing tC
the west sidewalk, on their way to
school.
As there are many hundreds OF
these children who must daily cross
the Broadway vehicular torrent tC
reach the big public school over to
ward ''The Drive" Dan had plenty
of opportunity to interpose that in
exorable limb Of the law, his own gOOt
right arm, between the wheeled MOlOcf
and it's potential sacriticants. And
as he privately confessed to his moth
er, II 'tickled him blue"
Yet no traffic officer In New York
regular or detailed, better knew the
drivers rights nor more minutely re
spected them than this serenely dlgni
fed young copper.
Eighteen months on the force was
Dan, and his record was perfect. Tt
his work he brought all the sense o.
responsibility, the understanding o.
discipline, the dauntless will to serv
ice, that had developed ''Over there
In the A. Z. F. And he loved 1t anC
was proud of his unifarm.
Came a time when a se1ift in thu
system brought Dan to the Eighty
second street traffic post every morn
ing instead of now and then. 1t wa
at the beginning of this period tina
he first noticed the girl in the thil
coat. The morning was keenly coli
and the coat was very thin, indeed
the girl shivered bit as she waitet
for a surface car. 1t struck Dan a
odd that in that neighbOrhOOd one 8
gOOd-loOking should be unfitly clad
for luxurious coats and furs are a
common as the very taxis themselves
Dan saw the girl every morning 70
a week, and noticed that she alway
took a car Of the same line. Ono
when she glanced at him he caugh
himself on the very point of nOddin
to her, out of the friendliness he ha
felt toward her from the first, and
turned quite red and stopped the mex
SQUAD Of cars with an even more au!
tere gesture than usual when he rea
ized II.
But when he saw the girl next da
absent-mindedly preparing to board
-FOrty-secOnd-street car,
ventured to suggest ''That one doesn
20 down Tenth, lady," And when tn
girl bestowed on him fairly b.
wildering smile and said: "Oh. than
YOU" in a voice Of vocal velvet, Dan
heart gave a jump such as no Ge
man shell had gotten out Of 1t in ii
Argonne.
After that the girls thin coat b.
came a positive personal worry
Dan. He wasn't sure, but he had
shrewd notion that policeman's vii
could dress better than that, eve
though he did keep his fingers cles
from all the graft. And when Il
girl. each day for three, greeted hi
with a cordial "Good morning, officer
Dan almost, but not quite. lost h
head, between the kiddies and the a
tomObiles.
II was on the fourth morning thi
things broke badly for Officer Trayer