Imperial Valley press., 1935-07-25
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NEW YORK. July 25.-Bryant
Park, nesting so near the jangle
that is the metropolitan heart beat,
seems in perpetual browse. All
about the clang of traffic, the cry
Of newsies and the banging of the
elevated. Yet in its tiny acreage
city captives find escape 1t is al
ways filled.
Most Of the day sitters are the
elderly, genteel shabby men who
pore over discarded newspapers or
sit contemplatively twid ding
thumbs. The women are those wild
ows so haplessly flung at Fate, fad
ed lonely and usually knitting. Ov-
er eastward they live in tawdry
high-up rooms, at the end of the
hall.
There are few smiles, almost no
talk. Save among those whose lips
humble to themselves. They glance
at the stranger then quickly turn
away as though fearing there
might be recognition. About it all
is an unrelieyed solitude where
stark memory perches like birds in
surrounding boughs.
At sundown the sparrow and pig
con feeders arrive to scatter their
crumbs and stand listlessly, a high
light in their drab days. Bryant
Park forms a human scrap heap
of people who ask no charity. The
now means nothing. The only
thing to which they cling is the
past.
The late Karl K. Kitchen, a giant
of a fellow, was the kindliest and
gentleSt of men. There was only
one suspicious occasion when he
was ever known to lose his temper
and it was a fury magnificent to
behold. He did something most of
us lack courage to do The Incl
dent took place in one of the most
exclusive, highly priced restaurants.
Kitchen was waiting for his check
to take his dinner party to the
theatre. Ten, 20 minutes and no
waiter He signaled several cap
tains and tried futilely to catch
the head-waiter's eye. Then he
asked his guests to get their wraps
and wait for him in a reception
room. When they were out of
sight he upset the table with a
bull-in-the-China-shop crash and
stormed out
Love and hate note: Cheek by
jowl on a block in West 23rd
street are the lodge rooms of The
Friends Of the Chinese People and
The Anti-Nazi society.
Ben de Casseres is regarded by
many as Americas most expert
word juggler. He can make a par
agraph dance on its toes and send
us all scurrying to the dictionary.
He is a friend of Mencken no
slouch either at fancy Wordage. De
Casseres began his career as
printer in Philadelphia and was
one of the favored few to occupy
jim Huneker's beer-ringed table at
dark -timbered LuchoW's. A night
owl, he was also a frequenter Of
Joels in its palmy days as well as
hell-roaring Jacks. In mellow mo-
ments with the right sort of crowd
he winds up the evening quoting
Emerson's essay on SELF Reliance"
And all 90 home in a reflective
mood.
New York's agreeable small town
mess is synbolized by the old fash
ioned New England meetings that
take place weekly in that structur-
al throw-back to yokelism, Town
Hall The gatherings are non
commercial, non partisan and deal
with pertinent political questions.
Contrary to the specious theory
that no New Yorker will attend
anything free, these Thursday
night affairs are packed. Heck
ling is in full flower and every
speaker is baited. Not in vicious
Broadway manner, but as a means
of intellectual exercise. In the au-
dience and on the rostrum have
appeared Raymond Moley, Norman
Thomas. Lawrence Dennis. James
Gerard, Al Smith and other not
ables.
A Chicago gentleman suggests
that it might be the caper for
newspapers to print under the lit
tie columnar thumb cuts OF me the
Biblical quotation--from John as I
Notwithstanding Fear not; it
is Il"
Thingumabobs: Sid Solomon has
no perceptible pulse Tom
Whites 17-year-old daughter Car
mel is the latest dramatic school
graduate to eXite Rialto producers
Jay O'Brien was once regarded
as the best dancer on Broadway
In Paris they don't say thing has
chic any more They say it has
cachet. CKashay)
Ny one red corpuscled brayado
often flutters between two courag-
eous gestures. No. /: To scream
1T looks terrible, take it awayl"
when the waiter captain lifts the
silver lid on the entree for inspec-
ton. No. 3. To tell the barber
when he holds the mirror to the
back Of my head; That's a rotten
hair cutl"
STUDENTS TURN FARMERS