Smyrna times., 1937-01-07
SIDE LIGHTS OF
NEW YORK CITY
Told By L. L. Stevenson in
His Own Immical Way
of DOings in City
INTERESTING SKETCHES

most efficient scouts for this de-
partment-a gentleman and a schoI-
ar since whenever he digs up a
yarn, it's o. K.-reports that many
of the pickets, seen so constantly on
the streets of this mans town, are
not the real thing. It seems that
some of the unions, when a strike is
on, pay their members a dollar a
day each for doing picket duty.
Members too old to put in long
hours walking up and down on hard
sidewalks, as well as those who
prefer leisure to a dollar, employ
substitutes to bear the banners.
Thus, man carrying the announce
ment that painters on strike may
be in reality an out-of-Work bus boy,
or one announcing that the extermi-
nators are after a living wage may
be a jobless plumber.
Rikers' Rats: Much has been
written about the rats on Rikers
island where mountains of garbage
have been dumped by the city. Leg
end has it that those rats actually
grow fat on poison and that they
can lick any dog sent after them.
Some are said to be so big that
they look like young elephants. Mil
lions have been slaughtered in one
way or another but the supply, ac-
cording to reports, never seems to
decrease. There may be exaggera-
tion in some of the reports. But
the prison board, in a recent re-
port, stated that the rats were ac-
tually invading the new penitentiary
on the island, steel and stone ap-
parently proving no barrier TO the
willy beasts.
Morning Mists: It occurs to me
that in the past I've written of those
light fogs common in the morning
these days, which transform New
York's famous skyline into some
thing unreal. At any event, the other
morning / got up at what seemed
to be the middle of the night-6
a. m.-and went down the bay on
the government cutter. CHANGING
to look back, I caught glimpse
of what seemed to be a city floating
in midair-a city with gigantic
buildings that had no foundations
save white mist. And as l looked,
I wondered if those famous hang
ing gardens of Babylon were like
that. Then the cutter turned and
went in pursuit of a vessel the cap
tain of which was in too much of
a hurry to stop. Interest in the
race caused me to forget the magic
city for SO long that by the time /
looked back again, the sun had done
its work and the tip end of Man
haitian was again real
BY Any Other Name: It may be
remembered that recently the po-
lice department destroyed $4,000
gallons of liquor, holdover stocks
from the last six years of prohi-
bition, which had bootleg value
of 100, 900. The liquor was dumped
into the bay over in Brooklyn, which
did not make any difference since
there are no more fish left in the
bay to kill anyway. What I'm get
ting at, however, is that the deputy
police commissioner in charge of
the destruction bears the name OF
Meaney. That might have had some
significance, especially for the
thirsty among the witnesses, if that
liquor hadn't been so bad that OF
the whole stock only 1,472 gallons
were found worth saving and most
of that will probably be used to
keep radiators of police department
motors from freezing during the
coming winter.
Cities Within a City: A group was
discussing the Kaleidoscope city
known as New York. Finally, one
recalled the New York merchant
who was asked why he didn't estao-
lish a branch over in Newark. the
argument in favor of the New Jer-
sey town being that it was city Oh
half a million. IF I want another
city of half a million, all ! have
to do is establish a branch few
blocks from my present store, SAID
the merchant and the Newark pro-
ponent lapsed into the silence that
fact sometimes brings.
QUESTIONABLE seem to have
way of pursuing Carmela Ponselle.
The other day she received one
from a radio fan magazine. 1t con-
tanned questions ranging from MISS
Ponselle's diet to her favorite COM
poser. Toward the end was the
following query: "Are there any
other talented members In your
family?" That was the only query
Miss Ponselle answered. In the ap-
propriate space, she wrote: Some
people seem to think my sister Rose
shows promise"
@ Bel Syndicate-WNU Service.
Old Lamp Still Burns