New Britain herald., 1930-10-09
'O.O.MclnfYre

New York, Oct, 9-Modern va garies of an unsentimental age have not entirely beclouded New York. The golden past peeps faintly through here and there. The old Murray Hill district, more than any other, symbolizes how tenuously many cling to subdued and oppres- sive mid-Victorian propriety.
 In this area may be found digni-
 fled gentlemen who take infinite pains in trimming their boards, cul- tivate a rather melancholy habit of mind and who wear hats straight on their heads instead of at rakish angles. They make sweeping bows to ladies and otherwise epitomize perfect behaviourism.
 The old Murray Hill Hotel, center of the district, droops in a somno- lent gloom. In its enormous lobby are venerable aristocrats who carry gold xhobbed canes and meet any unseemly overtures of strangers with quickly lifted eyebrows and hearty garrumphs. A few still indulge a pinch of snuff.
 There are Murray Hill men who take an afternoon off now and then to dress in frock coat and high hat and pay brief, respectful calls to the brown stone mansions of old friends. Once a month they go far down town for similar visits with tho family lawyer.
 Many ladies, as frail as frost, re- call long black half-mitts and state ly minuettes. On pleasant days they depart in closed carriages, horse drawn. for circle of Central Park. A fleeting glimpse of their faces sug- gests old Ivory and you somehow think of the quick, sad strokes of churchbells.
 While the Morgans live on Murray Hill. not all are rich as New York judges wealth. But they are the last of the vanishing blue bloods. Uni forms of their coachmen are shabby. Buffers are fabby and gouty from age. Any number of residents still have six o'clock dinners in the half light of patrician basement dining rooms.
 These are the thinning line Of gentle folk to whom tabloids, isms, saxophones, sex novels, pagan plays and other off-shoots of a registering generation are mysteries. Their amusements are learned lectures at Town Hall and a few suspicious symphony concerts at Carnegie.
 I still think, however, nothing looks quite so out of place in the New York hurrah as one of those pointer hunting dogs with beautiful coat and pleading eyes.
 On the day the celebrated Henri Matisse visited New York the metro politan press bulged with engage ment rumors of a cabaret singer to a motion picture lady. One notice of the celebrated painter was en- compassed under Hotel Arrivals" dismissed completely with a single line: Henry Matisse, Nice France"
 A returning American, weary of hearing Berkeley pronounced Bare lay" and Cholmondeley "Chumley" had his revenge. A Britisher bade him bon voyage and remarked that some day he hoped to see Niagara Falls. You mean Niffles?" qucriel the Tank.
 Too, hear British ship builders are knitting brows to excel with something larger than the German ships Europa" and Bremen" They were at work on the thousand foot Oceanic when the Teutonic liners were launched and immediately abandoned their marine masterpiece. In the meantime French ship build CTS have up their sleeve the "Isle de la Cite' in which they hope to cross from Havre to New York n less than four days. Fun on the ocean, gracious me!
 I was getting along fairly we'll