New-York tribune., 1922-10-15
i WELvE THOUSAND American bank
ers freckling their tonsfls looking at
tie tall buildings in New York the

ers freckling their tonsfls looking at
tie tall buildings in New York the
ether day, while the American Bank
srs' Association was meeting in the great
metropolis, in their enthusiasm bought canes
. Civ them a prosperous, urban air. Those
canes will last about twenty-four hours out
ef New York. The bankers will never dare
pring them back home. So the Pullman cars
md union depots of Kansas City, st. Paul,
Tleveland and Memphis will begin to look like
4 faith healer's exhibit as the bankers strag-
,e home from their New York excursion.
New York did everything for the bankers
but get out the militia and the Fire Depart
nent. And in return the visiting bankers
cid their bit for New York. The hotels Of
6he great city were crowded; the theaters
we're jammed. Fifth Avenue was filled as it
sarely fills with strangers. For the bankers
act other thousands from the country who
eame in to see the big ball games. New
York crowds go quickly TO their objectives.
These great throngs from the outlands idled
sslong Broadway and became sluggish masses
of men and women before the theaters opened
md afterward, when they poured their foods
If humanity upon the pavements. Through
shese window-shopping mobs New Workers
cied vainly to hurry. But the inertia of the
mass was too much for the New Yorker and
,e slowed down. Also, he was taking his last,
ORG look at legs-chiefy mammals legs. For,
,xcepting when one looks upon lady who is
9earing out last years dress, one sees few
egs in New York to-day. Instead Of legs we
ee about everything else that we shouldn't
lfor the long, loose, languid, clinging gowns
hat women wear may seem more modest than
he short, sharp, snappy, legative skirts that
re have become used to; but the seeming is
delusion. "Womans chief asset" says
age, "is mans imagination" And these new
lresses are designed to increase woman's as
cts so that she will have to declare stock
dividend.
THE shows of New York this autumn into
which the bankers and baseball fans
"rowded are highly innocuous. The plays are
bright but unimportant for the greater part.
It is cusious that American dramatic art
s so far behind other forms Of artistic
expression in America. The average Ameri-
can play hinges upon the most obvious
notives-the family mortgage, the stolen
bonds. the erring wife, the long lost brother
all DID, shop-worn themes. They are bright
med with crisp, smart dialogue. And the most
important plays in New York are of foreign
Importation - Galsworthy's 'Loyalties" and
Ethel Barrymore's performance of "Rose
Bernd." OF course, the big show is the Hip
podrome. 1t always is. Year after year for
Eighteen years the Hippodrome has managed
o put on wonderful roduction--wonderfu
hiefy in its entire simplicity. 1t is as clean
and native and frolicsome as Sunday school
picnic and as gorgeous and inspiring as a
sunrise. The ladies by the hundreds naturally
show their legs-some quite bare--and yet. in
the acres of legs never is there hint of sex
lure. 1t is as sexless as mother giving her
children bath in the tub. And the splendid
beauty of it, the sheer joyous grace and glory
If it, remains a marvel. A little more scphisti-
cated-a shade more like college girl on a
beach-is the Greenwich Village Follies The
froics and follies in New York are the grand
children of the old leg shows. But the smear
OF sex is wearing rather thin, and to-day they
depend for their charm chiefly upon their
splashes of color, their marvellous rhythms and
the mass action Of men and women PLAYING
rather unconsciously to produce sheer Joy.
Their mass action for joy is the soul of the
Hippodrome show. 1t is pretty much the main
spring OF the various follies. Every year sees
the beauty of these spectacles increasing. and