The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-01-15
In New York
By Paul Harrison

| New York,--Morc people get I married in Manhattan's Municipal Building than anywhere else in the world. There's no music. and Offici- als around the place frown on the idea of heaving rice and old shoes. Bet old Papa Knickerbocker has unbent to the extent of fixing up a dusty little pink chapel decorated by some discouraged rubber plants. That serves well enough. | A marriage license costs $2r which is 25 cents less than a hunt ing or fishing license. About a dozen times a day Mir Julius Bro- sen and his aids get the papers all made out and then discover that the couples haven't even the $2. Occasionally MT Brosen makes up the difference. After 27 years of his job, he still takes 1t pretty seriously.
 Couples who want to go up an- other flight to the little pink chapel can be married there for an additional $2. Par for the course. from buying a license to kissing the bride, is 27 minutes. Professional Wedding Guests <
 A good many people matrlmon-9 ially bent forget to bring wIt- nesses, and then a couple of clerks+ have to be called In. They don't seem to mind. There also are professional witnesses, who si. aroung the lobby waiting to be to-be who have sudednly remcm- bcred that witnesses are neceb- sary. The officials frown on thesa lopportunists and chase them away regularly, but they drift bacis again. The attraction, sof course, Is the gratuity that is expected / from each happy groom. 2
 Foreign couples seldom neglcct to bring witnesses. One pair wero , accompanied by 46 friends and relatives. There also arc profess sional parents who. for fee. will swear falsely concerning the ages of the principals.
 Gay Blades v
 The great height and simmer ing symmetry of the George , Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson between Manhattan and New Jersey, bring all manner of cxclamations from tourists whok view 1t for the first time. To some, < though, 1t seems to suggest notb-4 ing more than q solution to the problem of what to do with old razor blades. Toll collectors and bridge patrolmcn occasionally re- ceiye small packages of old blades, together with notes requesting that they be thrown over the rail into the river. The stuff comes from all over the country. and only the bridge-mcn ever seem to nH inL "a Ia that they dispose of the razor blades as suggested. Nothing else to do with them.
 Threc's q Crowd
 On Church street, in downtown Manhattan, is the narrowest-- or anyway the thinnest = store in the world. Forty feet long, but only 48 inches wide at the largest end, tapering to 28 inches at the other. It is the esta blishment of Martin Freedman, Mems Furnish ings, and has two clerks besides the proprietor. The clerks, man and q young woman, are quite thin, and will have to remain that way If they want to keep their jobs Mr Freedman says he does mt expect to get fat because ne
 
 ness.
 Daddy Of Skyscrapcrs I'll admit that have sort of nostalgia affection for the Flat iron building. It was pictured on the first postcard I ever received from New York. Once 1t was the highest, and among the first, multi million dollar edificcs In the big town.
 visitors, especially foreigners. still ask about 1t. A tourist may sguint at the Empire State, with It's spire in the clouds, and say: Fig son. lof-a-gun, isn't it? But how about the Flatiron?' ways has been tho Fuller Build ling) has only 21 stories, and nos body goes any more to the obser- yntion platform on the nineteenth floor, When visitors see 1t, sur rounded on every hand by taller structures> whose names Bcarcely ianyone knows, they turn away sadly, q little resentful of the three decades of change.
 Neighborbood Notes
 Choicest example of proxim- lity, though not propinquity. is the taxidcrmist's shop on Sixth laycnue which adjolns n dog-aild- cat hospital. And on Fourth ave. lnue the American League Against War and Fascism has as neigh bor the firm of H. Keller, which : makes military uniforms. | fs=ss.sssss:....s::..llss. ::..llss.s..:sl..N 'NA1TodayS Lk11ud d1IACA