The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-20
In New York
By PAUL HARRISON

New York-If anybody wants to
 write book called "Innocents A.
 Broadway" I'd like to recomend a chapter on Aideen O'Connor. The big town doesn't know
 much about Aideen, though it has ISeen her often enough on the stage where the Abbey Players have been presenting their Irish repertory. She is the prettiest and youngest member of the company, and the darling of the troupe, and
 she believes in fairies. But for all
 that, she is ,21 years old. Of course, she knows there are
 none of the good little people in for them here, and there are no
 bogs." she said. '"The fairies I
 know have, to have bogs."
 Manhattan Magic
 She has to have poise. does Aideen, though her blue eyes are wide and her words come in breathless rushes. She reads ev- erything she can find about Joan of Arc and-of all people-Nap- oleon. In her convent school, be- fore joining the Abbey group. she
 used to produce the plays of
 Shakespeare. Everything for her | is make-believe, even mad Manhat- tan. Night clubs, she says, are beautiful. I guess she sees only the lights and colors. ''It was so pretty, that night club, that I though about it after
 go back to my hotel, and could not sleep until there was dew on l the dawn And one evening we went to the top of the Empire State building, and I was sure it was dream. Like Peter Pan when opens his nursery window
 and looks at the lights in the dis tance.
 "of course would not like to stay in America after we finish
 our tour. The cities are so. big
 and quick you might get run over any day. And in New York 1t has
 been like living in the movies, which never seem real to me but
 just like a fairy world where peo- pie can live for while.'
 Fairy Story
 1 Most actresses at 21 have been | married and divorced cot
 pie of times and have had a fling | at Hollywood, I reminded her. | Aideen said she would like to get | married, all right, provided she could have a six-months engage
 ment and if the man were not m
 actor. But she doesn't want 10 act in the movies. Sure, with all those people, around, I couldn't imagine anything" Has she eyer actually seen any fairies? Only once, said Aideen Tt was coming evening and I was picking cotton in bog in Nn ', Nena rnf1 tnnr ttna smoke was rising straight from q
 little house on q hill. the air was that quiet. And then saw this lepre-
 chaun, a flash of green and red, and he was wearing a brown apron. A leprechaun is a shoe
 maker for the fairier. They are
 always bringing him gold for
 mending their shoes, and all the time he is hiding it at the rain-
 bows end. If you catch a lepre- ! chaun he is obliged to take you and show you where his gold is hidden. It is fairy law. "I didn't catch this one. He wouldn't. talk to me, because
 said 'Oh!' and he disappeared. I though. Gold sometimes turns to withered leaves" "Then gold is good only for
 mending fairy shoes?" I asked. "Of course." said .Aideen OCon-
 nor.
 Elusive Critic
 J. B. Priestly, the writing man who has said a lot of uncomplimentary things about us, came to town the other day and was obliged to run the usual gauntlet of receptions. Only this time the people who usually gush over visiting celebrities seemed to
 have the sinister purpose of trying to trap Priestly into further criti- cisms.
 But he proved wary. One of the celebrity -baiters tried again.
 MT Priestly," he said. "I believe I read somewhere that you deplor- ed the way Americans use anly two adjectives. swell and lousy"
 Mot bit of it." said the lit-
 erary lion. "In fact, although I
 think 'swell' Is lousy, think
 lousy is swell"
 And with that, Mir Priestly re-
 established himself as a swell guy.