Smyrna times., 1932-03-09
LIGHTS OF NEW YORK
Happenings in and About New
York as Told by Walter Trumbull

Happenings in and About NeY
York as Told by Walter TrumbuH
Helen Worden, well-known news
paper women, has a cat by the
name of Arnold. Whether the ami
NAL was named for Benedict Arnold
or Arnold DAILY, do not know, but
at any rate it is a highly favored
cat, which has long been treated
like king by members of the Wor-
den family, which formerly resided
ON West SiXty-seventh street. An
other resident of that street was
and is William Beebe, the famous
naturalist and fish man. Arnold.
like other kings, grew tired Of the
cream and trapping of royalty and
used to try to get away from it all.
His method of egress was BY the
window. After some time spent in
seeing life incOgnito, he would re-
turn in the same manner he had
left Now Sixty-seventh is a De-
culiar street. On the long block
which runs west from Central park
are some of the most attractive
apartments in the city. Also in
that block is one of the citys few
remaining blacksmith shops ana
also a lumber yard and paint shop.
In his wanderings, Arnold must
have visited the latter because, on
one occasion, he returned covered
with light gray paint. Now, Arnold.
in his natural state, is a black car.
When, therefore, a member Of the
Worden family saw a gray animal
crouched on the window sill, the
natural thing to do was to throw
pitcher of water at it. Indignant
at such treatment and at not being
recognized in his own domain,
Arno' departed and was not seen
for three days. BY this time some
of the paint had worn Off
Being treated royalty. Arnold was
scarcely to blame for getting the
idea that anything he desired was
his right of birth. It happened that
Mr.. Beebe. either on his trips to
the Galapagos islands, his descents
to the bottom of the sea or on some
of his other wanderings, had col
lected a number of rare fish with
weird eyes, fins and tails. These
he had in small aQuariums in his
apartment In a highly mysterious
manner, these fish began to disap-
pear. The story goes that one day
Mr.. Beebe happened to see Arnold
put a paw in his mouth and dislOdga
a fish bone from his throat. There
was a bit of controversy over the
matter. which may be one reason
that Arnold and the Wordens
! moved to Park avenue.
A women l once knew had a cat
1t was not a royal beast, such as
Arnold. It's pedigree might have
read, Stray out of Alley This cat
actually fell into a pot of red paint
and became thickly coated The
woman who had taken it in had
one of the kindest hearts in the
world and decided that something
must be done. She had heard of
human beings who had gilded them
selves for some reason, dying, be-
cause all their pores were clogged.
The only remedy she could think
of was to try to remove the paint
by turpentine This took off not
only the paint, but the hair.
never shall forget my first sight Of
that cat after the operation. A cat
without its hair is the most star
Ting sight l have ever seen. With
a round head. thin body, and long
legs it looks like some creature out
of a nightmare. I never knew
whether that cat became normal
again or not
Thomas Mitchell has dog
named Jean. Mr.. Mitchell. who is
the author of such plays as Little
Accident" and Cloudy With Show
ers," claims that Jean is descend
ed from the bloodhounds with
which he once played in "Uncle
Toms Cabin" and also that he can
not write unless the dog sits beside
him. He says that when he gets
stuck for a third act, the dog crawls
around under the furniture and
noses up the rugs until it discovers
an idea. Phil Dunning. hearing Of
the dogs ability. borrowed it while
he was writing his latest play.
Few persons appear to know that
Samuel Merwin, the novelist. is an
authority on oriental history. Mr..
Merwin has spent considerable
time in the Far East and is espe-
cially interested in the story of the
Mongols. One of his other hobbies
is tennis.