The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-25
In New York
BY PAUL HARRIsON

dogies," which are New York Gen. l tral freight trains, will be able to roundup. Pretty soon the little git along by themselves. For all l elevated structure is being built for them, and therell be no further | need for the city ordinance which l says that trains moving on any New York street must be preceded | by rider on horseback, one l block ahead of the locomotive,
 waving a red flag by day and a red
 lantern by night.
 The quaint custom dates from 1850, when the city council de- cided something had to be done ito warn pedestrians and to pre- vent runaways of horse-drawn ve-
 hicles." The snorting steam en- zines and clanking cars of that
 day were soaring the daylights out of city-bred horses. The trains
 were moving mighty fast, too--- | sometimes ten or twelve miles an
 hour So a good way to slow
 them down seemed to be to have
 8 horse walk down the track in
 front of the engine. Then people | driving skittish horses could get out and hold them while the trains went by.
 Electric locomotives came into service and were quieter than the average motor truck. But there ! was no change in the law. Trains continued to crawl along Tenth avenue as they piled between the l freight station at Thirtieth street and St Johns yards, a couple of miles along the waterfront to the south. In front of them rode
 and still ride the cobblestone cowboys. There are a dozen of | them now, almost all arm-bred | youngsters, and using about the | only western saddles to be found | in New York. They and their
 mounts have learned not to falter
 or to b.dge an inch for a fire
 engine. a traffic signal ora careen-
 ing ambulance. Most of them have worked up some amazing
 variations on their flag and lan- | tern waving routines. But now
 comes the railroad viaduct and the vanishing of another colorfu! tradition.
 In the Drawing Room
 | Dorothy Parker is having her portrait painted. Or was. The other afternoon, when the artist had put aside his materials and | gone home. Mrs Parker got to looking over his paints and brush.
 es-and had a grand idea. | She went around the cock 1 tail marts and collected a lot l of friends, among them Don aid ogden Stewart and James Thurber. Brought them all back to her apartment, yank- l cd the pictures off the walls, | produced the pigments and brushes, and demanded that l each guest do a mural. They | did -. Mrs Parker has the | most unusually decorated apartment in town.
 The Early Struggle
 Notes on Katharine Hepburn:
 She has been fired four times l-from "The Big Pond" because
 she quarreled with the director;
 from "The Animal Kingdom" be- cause the leading man didn't like her; from Death Takes a Holi- | day" because she was considered
 too cold for the part; from "Art
 and Mrs Bottle" because she 1 WdSH cOlU euOuBHs VT SUtuctHiHB. l When they couldn't replace her,
 though, she was recalled for the
 latter production One of six
 children of a Hartford doctor. she
 never had the private fortune
 which romancing accounts try to
 attribute to her. A few years ago
 she had only two good dresses and
 two pair of stockings Her hus-
 band, Ludlow Smith. is broker
 with an office in Rockefeller Gen. ter. He can beat her at golf. for
 contrary to rumor she doesn't play in the seventies She
 loves all the fuss that's being made
 abou her. but tries to dodge ad-
 mirers wherever she goes. Uses
 taxis for fear Broadway might get
 to recognize her private car
 Her house over by the East river
 has been whitewashed, and she's
 buying French provincial furniture
 for it Probably her stauneh-
 est admirer is q boy Of about i6
 who hangs about her front door,
 gets taxis for her. and even follows
 her to tho theater, where he has
 another cab waiting when she
 comes out. She doesn't know his
 name.