The Washington herald., 1922-02-28
CHASE
MAKES men OLD,
SAYS MINTYRE
Gay Life of New York
Leaves Them Grim and
Dry as Old Shells.
By o. o. MCINTYRE.

NEW YORK, Feb. 27.-They are
middle aged, weighty and phleg-7
matte as the sphinx and under their
eyes, like an ochre smudge, are the
tell tale puffs of high life-the
pace that brings senility hard on
the heels of youth. Broadway calls
them men-about-town and society
weeklies boulevardlers and guild
nuncs.
About them is the false bloom
of good fellowship. Ready check
payers. prodiglous senders of or
child bouquets and bon bons and to
those who pay the price-buyers
of fur coats and select apartments.
They rarely smile. When they do
1t is a sardonic sort of grimness
as IL to say: The glass is at my
lips, but the wine Is far away"
They have lived hard and recK-
lessly and now their lives are clut-
tered with dead. scentless roses.
Their bonhomie mask to hide
truth. ugly and stark.
Burnt out lives. Always seeking
the crowds and the bubbling gay
painted. tinseled toys - knowing
they come merely to ply the I'M
certain art of gold digging" they
seldom reply to the endless flapper
chatter. Just sit with cryptic face
and immobile gaze.
The fact is nothing interests-so
they chase the rainbow Of promise
that hangs over the glabrous,
gilded paths OF the white way.
Impeccable of dress. barbered two
or three times a day, they roam
from cafe to cafe. from theater to
theater and club to club hunting
the elusive thrill that never comes.
Their business Is vaguely de-
scribed as being in the street"
Offices merely to receive their
clandestine mail and telephone
calls. Mos of them were born to
wealth, rotters at college and then
cast adrift with fat check books.
Soaring spectacularly for a time
they wind up walking graveyards
Of dead ecstasies and dead dreams
Comet old age-and Inevitable
govt. \ cloistcred life in a club
or gloomy private house with phan-
toms of the past. Along Broadway
II one cares to stop and read the
sunken headstones they will find
the chiseled tribute: They were
good fellows"
In the SOS Fulton street and
broadway formed New York's bust
est corner. At times 1t was COM
pletely congested by stages and
carts, and the only man who was
given right of way through she
to pass there driving his old cha!se
on his way downtown.
More traffic now passes Forty
second street and Fifth avenue in
an hour than passed Fulton and
broadway in two days in the eos.
An old-timer recalls that the husi-
est day Fulton and, Broadway ever
Rad was the day Kate Fisher, the
equestrian actress. rode. over the
Fulton street bridge, mounted on
her horse Black Bess. She was
playing "Mazeppa" ut the Old Bow
cry Theater at the time.
The old downtown section is no
mere. Only Trinity and st. Pauls
remain. About the only familiar
object left is the famous little drug
store in Nassau street. with the
ancient sign in the window Tape
worms removed while you wait"
Speaking of the Hollywood affair,
which most people are doing, Baird
Leonard. the female columnist of
the Morning Telegraph. remarks:
Murder doesn't out as much as
1t used to-" And the top page
screaming headline over a special
story from Hollywood in a SAT-
from journal reads: "Filmland's
Dirt! The Hollywood affair brings
to me one CLINT of the silver lining.
however. I rejoice that never
became a movie fan. At my age
I have lost too many illusions al
ready.