The Washington herald., 1922-01-14
MTgTYRE TELLS
OF UNDERWORLD'S
OWN DELMONCO'S
Hell's Kitchen Lives by
The Gun, and No One
Is Trusted.
By o. O. M'rNrYRE.

n
hilrs Is Hell's Kitchen Deimonico's
There are no giittering chandeliers.
Jacobean silver, panelled ceiling,
marble floors or sombre brocades-
yet Mulvahill's has a certain fair
IN. this gang Infested district where
men rule by Drawn.
Walters in clean and freshly
ironed Jackets are not skilled in
servile diplomacy nor do they con-
verse in polite French idioms but
they have knack of piling out
stretched arms dizziiy high with
dishes and hurting cultural orders
toward the kitchen. Also Mr..
MulvahilI himself told me that
each packs a punch.
The table tops are bars and
about them group abe flowers Of
Helps Kitchen aristocracy. The
girls, with rubily rouged lips, roll
their stockings with a little more
abandon and there IL about them a
gay insouciance-a mask to hide
life's realities
The atmosphere OF the place is
coldly remote and metallic, despite
the strident echo Of song, the noisy
banter and reckless bonhomie. One
feels that any moment there may
be a sudden and oppressive silence
followed by the clear click of a
pistol. For Helps Kitchen lives
and dies by the gun.
The men are coarse and leering.
They are given to contemptious
| mutterings and cynical laughs.
Their friendliest kind Of talk is
flooded with epithets OF the bagnio
And when they speak to the wom-
/ en- 1t Is in voices Of authority that
have the cold. fiat ring OF brass.
At one table sat man sanguine
of countenance, with q narrow
ugly face and heavy nose. He was
In a berry. blurry humor and his
vis-a-vis with frosty bleached hair
kept her hand on his arm and in
a vacant voice continually pro-
claimed him as her dearie." When
he pushed away and left her she
only tossed her head and paid the
check
Strong arc lights sputter above
the diners. a mechanical slot piano
jingles popular airs. strange. shad-
owy ngures come and go. At my
right a man in a twitching haze
nervously barred his arm and
pushed the plunger OF his needle
home unabashed. An ancient crone
came in. deliriously babbling. and
the crowd hooted. The spirit of
Helrs Kitchen was epitomized in
the sign over the cashiers cage:
I'VE Trust No One"
In reading over what I have writ
ten about Helrs Kitchen am re-
minded that the brutal face is many
times deceiving. On our block Is a
foreign workman-a sullen. brutal.
beetle-browed appearing fellow one
would be affrighted to meet on a
lone dark street. Yet the other
morning he was weeping over the
mangled paw of stray alley cat.
New York is big enough. but the
| California spirit exists in herald
! ing its bigness. There is that an
lation-sometimes placed at 10000.
but more often at 100000. The
| truth Is that all the hotels Of New
York, packed TO capacity. hold only
$4,000 guests a night-and half of
that number are New Workers.. Ex-
| press trains coming Unto the me-
tropolis can only carry $4,000 pas
| sengers. or course. the figures are
Il 10 he los to-
who work in New York and live IN
the surrounding cities.
In one of the musical shows there
is a magnificent living picture that
bears the title "Danae." The first
| night audience thrilled to the
beauty of 1t in collective gasps. In
q vague way / knew that Danae
had something to do with Greek
mythology. At the extr'acte I
sought some information from in
tellectuals. Not one knew. The
/ information I sought was finally
gained from a young lady usher.
The producer of the show said:
"Danae was a Greek dame who got
mixed up with some John and got
herself thrown In a creek" Great
uplifters, these theatrical producers.
And, my dears. so intellectual.
A well-known novelist on return
/ from one of his frequent lecture
taunts into the sticks dropped into
The Players. completely refurbished.
He had discarded his familiar
mackinaw for a swagger fur coat.
That's a fine coat" said a friend,
and what's II made Off"
Fellow." said the novelist,
those are Chautauqua skins"
| Tangerine" nears the end of its
hrst years run at the Casino on
Broadway. II has perhaps furnished
the most popular song hit of the
year in Sweet Lady,. Sally" has
played more than a year at the
New Amsterdam, and Il would have
/ taken three years to accommodate
Its crowds In ordinary-sized thea
| tiers.
Greaves-Taylor Wedding.
| CHARLOTTESVILLE Va Ian IA