Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1937-07-15
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New York, July 15.-There may
have been hot spells as dreadful as
this before, but I cannot remember
one. Probably have felt this one
more because I have been playing
hockey from the air-cooled theaters.
bars and gossip salons to commute
between here and my fief upstate. Hot
weather is always worse in the coun-
try.
For one thing, am covered with
mosquito bites. Thus I drip and suf-
focate at the same time. I'll admit
that you don't have to go to the coun-
try to find mosquitoes. There have
been a few every summer even IN
my seventeenth-floor niche; iSut Man
haitian mosquitoes are relatively harm
less and even amiable beasts COM
pared to the winged carnivora of the
upstate wilds.
Indeed we had a pair of mosqdl-
toes which began acting up every hot
spell in Manhattan and we swung pill
lows at them and harassed them in
every way we could devise until they
became almost tame. They practiced
buzzing rather than biting. 1t was pos
sible to go to sleep with the comfort
ing impression that you were listen
ing to the hum of propellers over
Newark Airport. In the country you
are up against the fast pursuit type
of mosquito which dives aud stings
noiselessly; you are scratching before
you have heard the warning hum.
Nevertheless l am determined to
retain my foothold on Mother Earth
and like the country. This is due, very
possibly, to the taunts of all who
knew me; they insisted that I'd be
miserable. I'd go crazy, they said, in
the country, even if l stayed no longer
than from Friday to Monday each
week. I'd miss Manhattan and the
surge and stir of the town-the night
clubs (Which l frequent less than
anyone else in my line), the roar of
traffic and the sulphurous bedlam OF
Broadway.
So I made up my mind that I'd de-
velop an overweening passion for trees
and earth and the simple life. So far
1 have made encouraging strides in
this direction. The aptitude was there
only long undeveloped. I do love the
country But it is hell in the sum-
mertime.
For one thing, Manhattan is always
pleasanter on Summer holidays than
at any other time in the year. That
is because q large proportion of Man
hattanites have climbed into their
cars or onto trains, boats and subways
to swelter together in great hordes at
all the places which are theoretically
cooler. That leaves the town quiet,
lazy and inhabitable; it has, on those
occasions, all the advantages of a
sleepy rural town and of London after
the Great Plague was over.
do miss Manhattan over Week-ends
when it is at it's best as a place in
which to live; and 1 hate to spend
these week-ends in the country, which
suddenly becomes populated and
strewn with banana skins and tour
lists who give the impression of hold
ing their mouths open perpetually
while edging slowly but surely little
farther toward the left-hand side of
the road the longer they drive. But
I'm going to stick it out; I'm going to
like the country even in summer,
when it is hot, full of Manhattanites,
faulty plumbing, cool spring water
! which smells family like Prohibition
Scotch and enough bugs and reptiles
to warm the heart of DR.. Ditmars.
Maybe if I stick it out till fall it
will be worth while; then can sneak
out and think how terrible Manhat-
tan has got to be again.