Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-20
THE STERN SPORT OF BUS RIDING
By d j. Haskin.

NEW YORK CITY. Sept. 2o.-During the
hot summer days in New York City, the most
popular outdoor sport is bus riding. The
wealthy minority have their golf and their ten
mis- and their private motor cars. but the great
mass get their outdoor exercise and recreation
through the bus.
A bus ride during the crowded hours of the
evening may include running, balancing and
deep breathing, while it never fails to provide a
regular osteopathic massage. Once in his fav-
orite seat on the upper deck of the huge, I'M
calmly vehicle, the bus rider is jerked gently but
firmly back and forth from side to side until
every tiny bone in his spinal column has come
into violent contact with the back of the seat.
thus stimulating his circulation and arousing
his liver to protesting action. But by far the
most strenuous part of the sport consists in
catching the bus.
Although the Fifth Avenue Bus Company is
building buses fast as it can and recently turned
out four new ones in one week, and while every
available bus. whether it be aged, sick, decrepit,
afflicted with palsy or not, is being operated,
still there are not nearly enough buses to ac-
commodate the tremendous summer crowd.
Thus. while the sport of bus riding is at the
height of its popularity the competition among
bus riders is fierce and even frenzted.
In winter when there are large chunks Of ice
in the Hudson and Riverside Drive is draped in
silver instead of green, the buses are tame crea-
liz dut INDY pS u VAL Nh0
stretching forth of a hand. Few people care to
sit on the upper deck and freeze to death. But
in the summer open season they are often wild
and must be approached with strategy and eau
ton. .
Suppose, for instance, you select a nice hot
Sunday night for your bus ride. You want to
go up Riverside Drive, of course-and SO does
everybody else. All the Nos. 4 and 5 buses
headed in that direction are filled. The only
thing for you to do, therefore, is to take a down.
town bus. ride all the way to the end of the line
at Washington Square and then hold tightly to
your seat while it turns around and goes back
uptown.
Ambushing a Bus.
With this clever idea in view. you stand on the
corner of-say Forty-fourth street and Fifth
avenue, beside the giant street clock on the
lookout for an untitled bus seat. After fifteen
minutes of watchful waiting such a phenome-
non is seen approaching at a rapid gait. just
as you are preparing to signal for it to stop,
however, the huge red eye in the trafhc tower
at Forty-second street changes to green, and the
bus comes to a sudden standstill at the corner
above at Forty-ifth. Fearing that the one lone
seat will be grabbed by some one else, you dash
madly up to Forty-ffth street, only so see the
huge eye in the traffic tower change back to red
and the bus start forward again just as you are
in the middle of the block.
While such experiences are hard on the dis
position and may help to explain why New
Workers have a reputation for being churlish,
even so this undignified pursuit OF a bus is far
better than taking a chance at one OF the bus
terminals. Here long, weary lines of bus riders
are parked behind a rope and an iron sign sta
tlnK tnaL SUCH Q-Sucn d DuS SlOPS ntI ES
each bus draws up, the crowd surges forward,
showing. jostling and carrying its front ranks
before 1t as a strong wave sweeps a SURF palmer
to the shore. Clothing is torn. children bruised
and many new patients are created for the cltys
chiropodists. At last, however. you find your
self mounting the first two steps of the bus, as
leads to the upper deck and sinking Imply into
a vacant seat. The whole process Is purely IN
voluntary. 80
Once the bus get on its way, all is serene while
the bus riders recover their breath, nurse their
WOUNDS Tou and n,lb GRADUALLY aqua u yip revive aed In Cleans sae i andi Il It
is evening, the girls light their cigarettes Hats
are removed by both sexes, and the children are
made comfortable in case they wish to take a
nap. spooning. especially on the last two seats
of the bus, used to be extremely popular, but IT
seems to have been abandoned recently since
il was perfectly proper. zone of the best places
in New York to spoon" were his words,
among the afternoon bus riders. Between 4 ana
6 o'clock when the crowds are greatest, the pus-
es proceed at a snairs pace through the con,
gested traffic on Fifth avenue, and it often SO
happens that an. upper deck containing several
young ladies stops directly opposite a car below
containing several young men. Under such pro-
pitious circumstances an exchange of smiles
helps to while away the time, You can otten
ear a flapper remark say. girls. g go tntee
or Gee, didn't the bald-headed one nave d
GRIM
Flirts That Pass in the Night.
One New York seminary student who was in
the habit Of engaging in such playful features
of the bus riding sport when out with her com
panions, decided to try it alone one afternoon.
She was grinning vigorously at a young man IN
a taxicab alongside the bus when she was cna-
grined to see him say goodbye to his comPan-
ions, leave the taxi and go up the street. "A Few
minutes later she was even more EMBARRASSED
to see the young man sit down beside her. III
never occurred to me" she said In telnng tne
story, that he could possibly get out or the taxi
and get on the bus at the next corner"
Speaking of smiles. Immediately brings to
mind the bus conductor, probably the most
smiled upon individual in New York during the
rush season in the summer time. The bus con-
ductor can Immediately wither your hopes OF
certain to be tapped on the shoulder and placed
steer YOU cleverly into one. Here, SIT rlght
down here by the door," he will advise II the
smile is a dazzling one, land as soon as there IS
a vacant seat on the upper deck I'll let you
know In a short time, the favored person IS
certain to be tappen on the shoulder and placed
in first position by the staircase so that ne tor
usually, she) can quickly climb it as soon as the
departing bus rider comes down.
There was a time last year when the crowds
were so vast and the buses so few In compare
son that the bus conductors were no more 10
be influenced by pleasant words and smiies
than the foreman Of a chain gang would pc.
They had a supreme contempt Tor the puphc
which mobbed the buses and a fne sense ol
their own generosity in permitting passengers
to board. The bus rider who gave the slight
est offense-who did not step lively enough
mr. who required change for a dollar instead OF