Smyrna times., 1932-04-20
LIGHTS OF NEW YORK
Happenings in and About New
York as Told by Walter Trumbull

owns a gasoline and oil business on
the Boston Post road, and he tells
me that trade is poor. Motorists
who used to pull in and say, Fiji
her up" now count their gallons.
They buy just enough, apparently,
to get home. Many ask whether
they cannot open a charge account,
but the station masters son, who
runs the business in his absence,
has strict instructions to do only
a cash business. The only excep-
tions to this rule, queerly enough,
are young men who look like col
lege boys. They usually pay the
next time they go by but, just to
be on the safe side the gas man
takes their license numbers. Some
drivers have ten gallons of gas put
in the tanks and then say they have
forgotten their pocketbooks. THAT
Is all right" says the gas man.
"Just leave your spare tire" II
they drive away without doing so,
he just telephones a police box
down the road, and they come back.
Then they usually discover some
money. The station master says
the funny thing about the whole af-
fair is that most of the motorists
are driving good looking cars, many
of them new.
A letter from Frank Hartman, ed
itor of the Republican, in Farming
ton, n. NJ, says that he once went
to school in Pleasant Hill, Mo-, with
Frank Trumbull, later head of the
Colorado Southern and Michigan
Central railways. first met Frank
Trumbull in Venice. I had preced-
ed him up through Italy and the
tourist agencies and hotels used to
get our mail hopelessly mixed. We
had a very pleasant time together
but never could discover that we
belonged to the same branch of the
family.
The history of depressions in the
United States appears to be that
they last about three years, with
nine fairly fat years in between
Those of us, therefore, who are still
around in the early 1940s may be
expected to go about snorting
panic! You don't know anything
about a panic. You are too young
to remember 1881"
Another use for a Ferris wheel
would be as a ring for all the keys
to the city of New York which have
been presented to prominent visit
ors. The main trouble with mos
of these keys is to find a door they
fit.
When Helen Morgan was II
Havana, the movie people decided
it would be nice to take a little shot
Of her buying something In a de
partment store. They did not care
which store, but the management:
of the two largest stores in Havana
cared a lot. They were firm in ths
belief that If Miss Morgan went
! on the screen in a store, the par
ticular emporium made lot of diff
ference. The contestants turned
Miss Morgan's suite at the hote
into a verbal battle-ground. Nei
ther she nor her mother understood
Spanish. but they could perceive
that the argument was bitter. The
battle was at its height wher
| Evelyn Kelly, an old friend of Mis-:
Morgan, arrived. Not only could she
understand Spanish but IL appeared
she had taken a temporary job il
the older of the two palaces of mer
chandise. That turned the scale:
of war. Miss Kelly's store won IL
walk, at the end Of which the
| picture was made.
Miss Morgan's only bet in Cubs
was to the extent of peseta. She
lost 1t, and, not knowing how mucf
a peseta might be, proffered a dol
lar in settlement. To her surprise
she got so cents in change.
Small boys In New York have 6
habit of jumping up on the back oi
taxicabs and going for a ride. They
get on when the traffic stops for 9
red light, but the cars run so fast
between lights mat they have tt
wait for the next halt to get off. Al
the taxis begin to slow down, ths
kids leap gayly from their perches
seldom looking behind them. We
always wonder why they don't gel
killed, but never yet have seen one
hurt.
A rather funny situation has
been created by recent investiga
tions by state and federal agen
cies. 1t has made those engaged
in the liquor and speakeasy busl
ness so nervous that many of then
no longer do business by check
They do not deposit their profits In
the bank and pay all their obliga
tions in cash.