The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-10-18
In- [Mezg York
RY PAUn HARRIsoN

BY PAUL HARRISON ! New York = It seems strange that folktales could flourish in I New York, but flourish they do. with the aid of raconteurs and ladies' clubs and strangers falling into Fellowship at speakeasy bars. Manhattan folk-taleg, though. never begin with, "Once upon time =" but start instead with,
 "A friend of mine had the most amazing experience last night"
 These stories, you see, are al- ways kept up to date, and conse- quently have come to involve 2 lot of people. For example, almost anyone you meet these days knows someone whose cousins uncle was the employer of the girl who fig ured in the corpse-in-the- subway Incident.
 The popularly accepted version
 of this tale is that the girl had
 worked until after midnight get ting out lot of correspondence, land finally started home, huddled alone in one car of an .almost-emp- men entered. Two evil-looking. l burly fellows supporting between l them a third who seemed com pletely stupefied from liquor. At least, that was the impression given after the trio had lurched
 onto the seat opposite the girl. Each of the guardians kept an arm about his helpless companion, and occasionally tossed off some coarse joke about his condition. Mean while, too, they intently stared at the girl, and she grew very uneasy. The man in the middle seemed to
 be watching her.. too. through hail. lopen, expressionless eyes.
 Pretty. soon the train stopped at a station and an elderly gentle l man came into the car. He looked at the three men, then rose as if to leave and managed to lurch al- most into the girls lap as the train rounded a curve. ''Follow me out of here," he commanded in. low voice. She followed, and
 they left the train at the next sta ton. I'm physician" said the
 elderly man. T noticed that the fellow in the middle was dead. He'd
 been dead for hours
 The Mushroom Mystery
 Then there's the poison-Inush- room story. People are always popping up to declare that friend of their next-door neighbor knows
 woman who actually attended that unhappy dinner party.
 Shortly before the guests arrived,
 the cook is supposed to have men,
 toned to her mistress, that the mushrooms hadn't looked very fresh, but that she'd tried some
 on the dog and guessed they were Tall right. The dinner went off \ r.I,
 came with the dessert and whis-
 had just died.
 ad just died. .ss She screamed, rushed to a tele- phone, and began calling doctors and ambulances. By the time these arrived with stomach pumps the guests were rather pale around the gills. Some were stretched
 out on the floor, and one woman
 had dispatched frenzied wire to her husband in St Louis Be- fore going to work, though, one Lof the doctors decided to have a look at the dog. Pretty soon he I returned and looked witheringiy at the panic-stricken company. Madam" he announced. address ing the hostess, your dog was rgn over by a truck
 
 ,, Letting Cat Out of Bag
 II Another of the current folk-tales lconcerns a ferry-boat oommuter and a dead cat. The cat departed this life while resident in the com
 muter's apartment, and he decided i. | to wrap the remains into an incon- spicuous brown paper bundle which . could be dropped from the ferry , Ion his way to the office.
 II As he nervously loitered near the , rail of the ferry. though, it seemed !. that someone always was watch ling him. He decided to take the package to the office and try again . that evening. But he met some friends on the next boat, so he . carried the cat back home. de- termined to succeed next morning. , He didn't succeed. however, and : that evening it was the same. Des-
 perate, he decided just to leave the package on the boat. But he was scarcely over the gangplank } before kindly guard rushed after him and restored the carriop cat.
 Or was, it the cat? The parcel , felt a little different somehow. , Could it be that? Feverishly. the man tore open a corner. peep ] ed inside, and giggled >so hysteri- callv that people stared at him cur i, iously. This package contained a leg of lamb.