The Washington herald., 1922-02-25
M'DNTYREL LIlINS
MUSK SCENTED
AIR OF GOTHAM
Down Near Brooklyn
Bridge Is Queer Little
Arab Africa Quarter.
By o. o. MCINTYRE.

NEW YORK, Feb. 24.-Down
near the Brooklyn Bridge is a tiny
Arab Africa quarter occupying sew
eral blocks OF short-run streets-a
quarter that despite the open shrill
OF its market symphony and high
pitched laughter is as mysterious
as the muslin veiled, muted women
who trudge the paves.
AT night the bazars catching the
CLINT from the hundreds of banjo
torches sparkle with. color and
beauty. There are iatticed stalls
piled high with rugs in shifting
pattrens, altar bottles of all hues.
necklaces. earrings, anklets, laces
and silks.
Turbaned, vulpine men with
parchment faces haggle with each
customer and pun necessarily at
their cigarettes. II the customer
TURNS away they follow him to
the fringe of the district, beseech-
ing in bastard mixtures Of Arabic.
English and French.
In front of the Iimprovised mos
que are half-clad beggars cringing
in the shadows and crying out their
misery to passers-by In the
doorways sit cross legged the scant
bearded old men putting at mar
ghtles and as expressionless as the
Sphinx.
The air is filled with the heavy
scent OF musk. There is the soft
beat OF drums-always far off-and
that East minor wall of the Arab
ian night song. The table d'hotes
are hlled with Occidentals, tremb-
ling summers in awe of the eerie
magic Of the quarter.
In front of one house a group OF
N N n
semicircle and chanted, now and
then kneellng and turning i'm
! passive faces toward the East In
the house Yussef lay dead. Yussef,
the nomad tumbler. who jumped
three camels in row-a top
| mounter with a troupe on Broad
way. And then one night he missed.
1t is all an Arabian night in
Manhattan-a caravan that once
herded sheep underneath Morocco's
moon transplanted with all their
vivid color cE1 romance m the
modern Bagdad on the subway.
4 new matinee idol. Georges
Renevaunt tall, black haired
French boy who has been here only
a short while. I saw him on Forty
second street the other afternoon
wearing plum -colored overcoat
with a white fur collar and a long
visored cap. pleated around the
edges and bagging jauntily over
one side. His cane was strapped to
his wrist and he puffed from a
cigarette holder that was at least
foot and a half long One could
almost hear the f'utter of feminine
hearts as he passed along.
| Upper Broadway has a certain
opulence achieved by no other part
| OF Manhattan. The shops are newer
and the people different. Each
day seems to give a new shake
to window Kaleidoscope in the
stores. The delicatessens try to
outdo each other in gaudy displays
-sausaEes, cheese. pickles. jams
and what not fashioend into auto
mobiles. country homes and sub
way kiosks. Every other store has
Its circulating library and the drug
stores have red and green lights
| and really sell drugs. Baby car
| riages crowd the paves and the
young girls actually 60 out OF
evenings with mama and papa.
| Apparently not ashamed or any
thing. And they have any number
OF little cheese shops-dealing ex-
clusiveiy In cheese. imported and
| domestic. The butchers wear
| cleaner aprons than they do down.
! town and their cheeks are ruddier.
The movies go in for clean West
ern drama of "the dirty work on
the border school and heart throb-
0ing films of simple lasses who
foil the villain at the last spin of
the reel.
Gombussy's Flea Bag. the noto-
rious Bowery lodging house has lost
its oldest toarder. Tripper Quirk
has gone to farm upstate to re-
! side the remainder of his days
| ripper was street hawker and
had his pitch on Bleecker street
where he sold corn salve. He was
picturesque figure in his wide
sombrero. whit boiled shirt, shoe
string tie and faded black frock
suit. For twenty-one years he
! lived in the shabby, dim-lit Flee
Bag. Most all of my good friends
have tired OF the game and shuffled
OFT with poison or the bullet" he
said. Tripper had saved $500 and
he says he can live comfortably the
rest OF his life on that at the place
to which he is going.
| The swallow tail coat has come
! hack into fashion. so the New York
fashion experts say. OF course the
fact that it has two large pockets
| has nothing IN do with IL