Putnam patriot., 1925-03-20

 their own New York Life for a New Yorker, too often settles into a groove. There is the route to busi- ness in the morning and the route to lunch, and the route to the club and home in the evening and the familiar lanes that lead one out to dinner or to the theatre district and afterwards to a cafe. or, in the case of the New Yorker who is real New Yorker and has to work for his living. back to home and bed. The New | Yorker lives all too often in total ob- livion of a great world that laughs and sobs all about him.
 Now this is the story of an eve ming with three New Workers who did the unexpected. It is true they were not native New Workers. Few New Workers are. One was born in England another in Philadelphia and another in the South. Yet each of them claimed a resident familiarity with New York. They had dinei on a Saturday night and as they sat over their coffee they discussed what they should do with the remainder of the evening. It was too late for movie, too early for cabaret or night club. There was no chance for bridge with only three. What should they do? Finally, G. we'll so desig- nate the Philadelphian-said How about taking a sightseeing bus and going to ChinatownT'
 Ladies of the Evening l Now every visitor to New York is | familiar with the big busses that stand at certain corners in Times Square with their bankers bawling out the sights of the Chinese Quarter. but fl is doubted if many New Workers ever avail themselves of the opportunity l for the trip. The New Yorker leaves 1t to the visitor to see New York. The trio found their bus at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Forty Second Street. There was the bark CT outside and two lone women, close ly muffied, sat in one of the rear seats. Tickets were bought and seats taken and gradually the big bus fill ed with the city's visitors from fpsi- lanti and Grand Rapids, from Ban gor and Haverhill, from Richmond and Raleigh and points south and west. The big motor began to buzz, the Chinese lanterns were taken down. Suddenly the two women who had been sitting in the bus the fong- est elambered down. What's the matter with them?' asked E. mean ing the English-born-New Yorker, "aren't they going?'
 "No," said the lecturer, who had taken his seat at the front. mega phone in hand. They're just decoys. They get twenty dollars a week for sitting in the bas from four o'clock in the afternoon until the last trip at night. They attract people who wouldn't get into an altogether empty bus" So were the three Manhat- tanites made acquainted with a new and unique feminine method of earn ing a living.
 Down Through the City
 Shortly before midnight, the bus started downtown. The lecturer was at the front spouting information re- garding the sections through which the party passed There was, for instance, the McAlpin Hotel with a word regarding it's floor especially for women guests known as "No Mans Land" Grace Church was
 
 having been the scene of the mar riage of Banker Stillman." Moving through the crowded Ghetto and passing DeLancey Street the Kings borough Bridge was described as the Jewish Passover. Then came the Bowery with it's long lines of cheap rooming houses and finally a corner that led into Pell and Mott Streets and the abode of New Works Celestial population.
 Possibly in truth and possibly to give an added thrill to the scene, as the party alighted from the bus. there were many instructions as to the im- portance of keeping together. There | is a Tong war on in Chinatown and one or two Chinese of the feuding | factions are being bumped off al- most daily. Consequently Chinatown ia policed to it's teeth with braces of blue coats at every few hundred I feet.
 The three with their attendant par ties in a long trailing line passed through the now quiet streets or the section. A door was opened and everyone filed into the old Chinese i Theatre, now a mission for the shelter of the city's "down-and-outs.' h. side seats were provided on the stage of the old theatre, the auditorium nav 1 ing been given up to the wanderers or the night who were already asleep on the benches with newspapers or rag ged coats rolled up beneath tneir /, heads. A lecturer told something or the conditions of this class who are the flotsam and jetsam of the city. Meanwhile the men who were being described snored away or the benches or regarded the visitors with hst- less eyes.
 Refuge of the Wanderers
 At a word from the guide the party then started belowstairs to the base fment of the old theatre where on the bare wooden floor six hundred men were stretched out line after line with nothing on which to rest their heads but newspapers roll ed together. The odor from unwash- ed bodies, from unchanged clothing and from lack of ventilation was in- describable. The three New York ers rushed forth for air. Out of their beaten track of travel they were learn- ing how the other half exists.
 Uptown in the gilded cabarets where so many Saturday nights in New York are spent, there was music and dancing and much coin Of the