Smyrna times., 1935-09-05
SIDE LIGHTS OF
NEW YORK CITY
Told By L. L. Stevenson in
His Own Immical Way
of DOings in City
INTERESTING SKETCHES

were playing contract. Inc mouse
was quiet since the hour was near
midnight. The street was quiet
also except for occasional bursts
of traffic or the clatter of that
trolley that runs up and down Cen
tral Park West all day and all
night. Suddenly there were screams,
screams of a woman caught in,
nightmare horror, screams that sent
chills through the blood. So we
rushed to the windows. Across the
street a woman was writhing on
the sidewalk, and as she writhed, a
red pool grew larger. Up the street
a man was running. He wasn't go
ing fast because his movements
were impeded by an overcoat. But
no one was pursuing him.
Park apartments grew light.
Faces appeared at windows, first
floor windows, and so on higher
and higher. Deserted One Hun
dred Fourth street suddenly be-
came populated. Men and women
came out with coats thrown over
sleeping garments-or fully clothed.
They gathered about the woman on
the sidewalk. Men picked her up
and carried her into a hallway. A
man in pajamas went up to the
police box, opened it and sent in a
call. Apparently no one gave a
thought to that man running up the
street. 1t was just as well-by the
time assistance reached the woman
he had disappeared.
What had happened was soon
learned. The woman had come
home alone after spending the eve
ming at a neighbor's. She had only
a few doors to go and many times /
had turned from Central Park West |
into One Hundred Fourth street
with nothing happening. But hid
den In the shadows of a boarded |
up entrance to the subway, lurked
a man. In his hand, he held an
iron-covered stick. When the wom-
an was opposite him, he struck
struck with such force that the
weapon broke. But instead of drop
ping silently to the pavement and
giving him chance to grab her |
purse, the woman screamed as she |
fell.
By and by an ambulance ar
rived. A brisk inferno leaped from
the rear. There were no fractures
only a scalp wound. So with
hallway as an operating room, he
went to work. The case history
disclosed the fact that the woman
is fifty years old. Alone in the
world, she had been unemployed
for months. In the purse for which
a highwayman might have taken
her life, there wasn't a cent?
Thus an incident In the City of
the Seven Million-an incident that
didn't even draw a line or two in
the newspapers. But / wonder what
was in the mind of that man as he
ran up the street? And what had
been In his mind when he had
welded that bludgeon on the one
who evidently was the first passer-
by?
Boys playing baseball on grass and
shrubbery-healthful recreation or
quiet and eye-resting vistas? Seems
Rs IL that question is always COM
ing up in crowded New York. 1t is
under debate again in connection
with Central park. The park de- :
partment wants to take away the
baseball diamonds and turn the
space into park. Proponents of the
diamonds are fighting the move.
They hold that the park is for all
the people and that kids playing
baseball aren't getting into trouble.
The other side is taken largely
Dy those who live near the park.
Sand lot baseball is not quiet.
Noise admittedly is disturbing. The
park dwellers declare that as they
pay high prices for the privilege of
living near the park, they should
have the quiet. The baseball play
srs and their friends won out last
Vear.
Burns Mantle recalls that In all
he years the late Richard Berry
Harrison played the part of "De
Lawd" in 1.-The Green Pastures"
he objected to only one bit of busi-
ness. Instructions in the original
,cript directed that when he ac-
,epted a ten-cent cigar from Ca
,riel he was to smoke 1t. Harrison s
objected to smoking and said so. I
L wasn't dignified for "de Lawd"
md it wasn't pleasant for him. His {
objection stood.
G. Bell syndicste.-wNu Service.