The Washington times., 1936-11-21
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
BY Louis SoboI-
SmaII-Town Stuff!

-
the court orders as well as sum.
mons, notices and the like are
posted each morning. SO all can
see. It's a custom carried down
from the Revolutionary days and
seems so funny in a park sur
rounded by skyscrapers. -"
I wish Mr.. Farnsworth hadn't
written that. 1t prods our leth,
argic soul with a nostalgia yearn
for the little hilly Connecticut
town where we spent most of our
anemic. cropping youth.
Mr.. FarnSwOrth stretches a
point when he refers to the "sky-
Scrapers" surrounding the little
green. Waterbury'S chief "sky-
scraper" is something Off my
memory serves me correctly
perhaps eight or nine stories at
most, known in my day as the
Lilley Building. 1t was quite the
pumpkins when the last brick
was laid and it stood proudly
rearing its stately bulk, its top
most eyes commanding a view Of
the many miles which led to
Waterville, Mattatuck, Brooklyn
and even to Naugatuck ION q
clear day.. It's only rival was
and still is, for that matter-the
tall clock tower of the quaint
railroad station.
The trivial events which excited
us in those days! The annual
baseball and football duelS be-
tween Crosby and Naugatuck
High. The day President of the
United States stopped over for a
night, having visited his son at the
Taft School in WATERFOWL. That
was President Taft, and for days
after the town buzzed at fever
pitch. The occasional visit of a
road company of some Broadway
success. The day burlesque in
vaded the ancient Jacques Opera
House and we sat down in front
and studied fleShy queens in tights.
There was an editorial in one
paper, the sum of which was that
burleSque was indecent only to
those who had indecent minds.
Otherwise, life was serene and
uneventful and soothing. You
met in Exchange Place in the
early hours after supper and
watched the pretty girls go by
and blushed a bit if among them,
by accident or otherwise, was
your own pet. Nights were calm
and the heavens above blush
black and every star ShOne clear
and low, so that you felt you
could reach up and pick them
out, one by one, like bulbs out
Of an electric sign. Night life
came to an abrupt close at 10
o'clock, but the more daring
among us stayed out as late as
midnight at Mulligan'S or Hold.
sons or in the Chink Joint
where, if the chop suey wasn't so
good, it was at least plentiful for
the 30 cents, with all the tea you
could drink thrown in-pIuS
rice cakes.
If you were one of the select
few who worked on a local morn
ing newspaper, you stayed out
even later, of course. You came
to work at in the afternoon and
you quit at 3 in the morning.
Those post-midnight hours were
spent usually at the squalid little
police station, where the desk SER
geant told tall tales of hunting
exploits. Came another eventful
day when the new city hall was
dedicated, with it's brand-new DO
lice station, and now the desk SER
geant was a lieutenant and he no
longer thrust his stockinged feet
against a pot-bellied stove, and
with his new-gained dignity no
longer told tall tales. But you
waited around while they brought
in the DRINKS or the brawlerS.
New York and Broadway were
only three hours away, but so few
of us ever went except on the
rare occasions when the newspa-
per gathered together the faith
full readers for an excursion which
always included an evening at the
Hippodrome. In sumner, you went
to Lake Quassapaug or Shell
and you took your
lunch along unless you were
lucky enough to have a girl who
would supply your lunch as well
as hers.
You belonged to the National
Guard if you could qualify, and
once a week you drilled. There
was that day when you wished
you had been eligible because
the war came and you enlisted
in the Regular Army, and a year
later you returned on a furIOugh
proud of sergeant's stripes. This
was to be the big moment of
your life. as you Strutted around
the Center and met the other
boys home on furlough or those