The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-21
Daily NeWs
 Letter
General News and Gossip From Abroad.

TODAY-Chicago's ultra -modernity would suprise the ancients, concludes Roland krebs, Chicago correspondent. CHICAGO, March 21.-The caliphs and doges and emperors and such once-upon a time chaps who used to romp about their cities strictly incog to get an idea of how the other half lived would have the thrill of their drab lives to stroll around Chicago. Abdallah- en-Hakam, you'd be sur prised; no houris, perhaps. And no mendicants given to minstrelsy. NOT wild wadies of Bagdad. That is, if you don't touch this prohibition stuff. But where in the Bagdad or Byz- antium did they ever have street corner where there were eleven mur- ders in six months? Or a theater in barn where the plays of George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill and other contemporary tall thinkers were presented? The ProvincetoWn Play CTS had one in a Greenwich Village livery stable, true enough, but look here! the entrance wasn't in crumby alley like Chicago's.
 What if you did disguise yourself King Hal, and see your haughtiest duke chuckling a London barma1d under the chin out of duking hours! Did you ever seen a restaurant off of Broadway with bravado enough to ask s7 for a steak that isn't guaran- teed? No, and you never will, Hal unless you've got five bucks more for a cover charge.
 To get back to this street corner. | It's called ''Death Corner" in Little Italy, and that's no joke. The even ings used to be pleasantly broken up at Cambridge and Oak streets by shootings, stabbngs and bombings of such regularity as to make it incon- venient for promenading purposes. Eleven in six months isn't an average or anything like that. It was the apex Every bushes, every assassin ation, has it's dull moments. But now there is a uniformed po lieceman on guard there every min ute of the day and night His orders are never to leave the spot unless-well-"jus leave it and see what you get!" What killings hap pen there now will be the result of automobiles or people slipping on the | ice.
 The Community Players have their theater in barn at No. 409 Ash land Avenue. Everything is very compact and tiny. The curtain is calico. Hammer beats on a wall herald the curtains rise in place of the other theaters' chimes and or
 
 poverty, explained William Owen, beacon spirit of "the movement" is that to be a success any little the ater must start with its roots in the dirt, not in a velvet carpet. Many such enterprises fail, he fears, be- cause they are sponsored by the wealthy, who frighten away poor aesthetics.
 l Yes, the same joke Greenwich Vil- lage cracks at the Provincetown Players about Curtain at S:2O or whenever the horses are out" is being sprung on the Community Players. The downtown restaurant that gets l the higher the price the harder they | fall. It can't keep the crowds out with club. Other prices are pro- portionately high.
 Before serving broiled meats the waiter brings them to the guests for their inspection.
 "How does that look, sir?" asked a salaaming waiter of a diner with that short money look in his eyes
 Fine" was the answer. The waiter took it away
 "Now he brings the check, is that right?" asks the man facetiosuly.
 "You understand the workings of this place perfectly, dearie," said his companion.