The Washington herald., 1922-10-25
NelU York City
Day BY Day
By o. o. Mcintyre.

NEW York. Oct. s4.-Down on
Twenty third street is a small res
saurant that nightly draws It's CO.
terie of o. Henry fans. 1t was at a
little corner table that ne used to
sit and sketch oat many of his
stories- And 1t was the last place
he visited before he died,
He had come to New York after
alternating In North Carolina to
write play, A producer had
aroused him to the possibilities OF
play-writing. Previously he had
sold the dramatic rights to "a
Retrieved Reformation" for $500.
Paul Armstrong dramatized 1t
while locked In a hotel room for
enc week, and II made Armstrong
Slee,eee. The play was called
ATLAS Jimmy Valentine" The pro-
Queer, knowing o. Henry's weak
nesses. had wired him only part of
retainer.
This was followed by an urgent
message frem the writer saying:
Wire balance. Am waiting at the
depot-Perter." The next the pro-
ducer heard of o. Henry was from
New York hospital. where he had
been stricken with pneumonia.
1t WAS his supreme leve Of life
and eompanienship that caused his
untimely END. Once at, the gates Of
his beloved Bagdsd ne arifted joy<
ously to the bsEaars. was surround
ed by his host of admirers and oele-
brated his return from exile.
And thus, perhaps. the great
American play-'The World and
tho Door'-was never written. It
was in the little Twenty third
street restaurant the fnal night Of
his public appearances that he told
OF his drama and plans for the play.
The tragic side of his chronic
penury keeps coming to light from
time to time. Even in his success
full years he earned very little, for
harrassed by debt, he would offer
his wares for small amount Of cash
rather than wait for the regular
cashiers routine. Many took ad-
vantage of this.
Vlentino. the magnificent, strayed
into the exclusive shopping district
Of West Fifty-seventh street the
other afternoon. when Fifth avenue
was gay with shoppers. He stepped
into a milliner's shop TO see the pro-
prietor. an old friend, and the news
circulated up and down the street.
In almost no time the shop was be-
sieged. and motor traffic on the
thoroughfare hopelessly clogged.
He finally slipped out the back way
into another street and hurried
away in taxicab.
The dean of reporters at tho
Criminal Courts Building has heard
sentence of death pronounced upon
2S9 persons. 1t is a part of his Job,
but he always has a reaction in the
shape of furious headache for
two days. There Is another re-
porter on Park Row who has wit
messed twelve electrocutions. After
attending the last one he returned
from Sing Sing. wrote. his story
and toppled off a chair in a dead
faint. He has now quit reporting
and Is farming in a small Con-
necticut town near New York.
At an exhibition of mems clothes
in the Grand Central Palace re-
Gently one of the exhibitors said to
buyer: Moe. this show will be
the making OF New York"
One of the flapjack jugglers in q
white-tiled restaurant was merrily
dfsp-rtiIg in the window at Column
bus circle. As the crowds collected
he tossed his wares higher and
higher Then 1t happened. One Of
the cakes dropped on the back of a
cat. The cat jumped into the mid
die of Il table, three women dining
there became hysterical and a nerv-
Gus cashier yelled fire" The Jug
Sler is not working there any more