The mirror., 1923-05-17

way, the SlRnleSS auSterlty or Flftn Ave
nue. show place and parade ground
for the haute monde, the Polo Grounds
or the Yankee Stadium department in
bugology-but Coney is Coney.
The beach is mass of colorful en-
blazonment; vivid parasol vies with fu-
turistic bathing dress. While it is pal
pably erroneous that all men are created
equal it approaches the truth on the beach.
Stalwart deep-chested life guards stalk
haughtily among the sun bathers, preen-
ing themselves for the benefit of feminine
eyes. Anaemic youths loll upon the white
sands with their heads in the laps of
bobbed-haired enchantresses from Coogan's
Bluff and Passaic.
In the dance halls there is a tireless
procession of nimble-footed youths and
lissome lasses. The signing saxophone
and the tremulous trombone create
spirit of jazzimania that leads to decad-
ence, but who cares for this is the day of
youth and we live but once Discreet
guardians of the peace do not linger in
the vicinity where there is but one sha-
dow where there should be two for to do
so would be rendering his job into
heartless Interpretation of the law that
is not in keeping with his own scheme of
life. Dancing is censored but the toddle
and the park are featured boldly.
Over all the spirit of free-masonry pre-
walls, of carnival and surcease from pro-
sale matters. Dignifed men and women
chute the chutes or enjoy the thrill Of
giddy dropping from space with the care
free abandon Of children. There is
form of amusement to satisfy every seeker
of pleasure. Bright banners and fog
horn voiced ballyhoo spielers tell of the
men and women who firt with death so
that the jaded public may have thrill.
Hokum, for the most part, of course, yet
each year there are casualties and new
faces to take the places of those who
dared once too often. Every year there
are feats that surpass those of yesteryear
in daredevil recklessness of life and limb.
Coney Island is the greatest circus on
earth, and the so-caled travelling shows
are but a weak imitation. San Francisco
has its Neptune Beach, Chicago its Lin
coin Park Old Slowtown its Willow
Grove and Los Angeles the incompar-
able Venice-incomparable as to its type
but there is only one Coney Island. 1t
is all of the rest combined and more.
1t is the favorite stamping ground of
the grifting gentry, the hustlers, sheet
writers, shills, sure-thing gamblers, touts,
tenth-rate pugilists princesses of the tin
sci, the strange clan who follow the
amusement trail, who hearken to the call
of the bluebird each spring. The influx
begins soon after the first of the year and
continues until the last toot of the calliope
in the fall when red and gold from the
background for the color scheme of Dame
Nature. Nomads upon the face of the
earth they are and Coney is the only home
that they know or want.
The typical hustler is representative
American citizen, although many would
be loath to admit as much. He is, to
borrow slang expression, "cad,"
character. With his derby hat, always
worn at rakish angle, or his beaver
kelly, his garish shirts of sheerest six, his
ties that would outrival the rainbow, his
"rocks," and his suits of extreme cut, and
his peculiar jargon, unintelligible to the