Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-05-20

By L. L. STEVENSON
The whip man strolls through the
streets of the lower East Side call
ing, "A little whip for five cents"
In his arms are a hundred CO. more
whips, of various sizes. They aren't
for horses. They are to make bad
children good-or to keep children
from being bad. The smallest whip,
for very small children, consists Of
eight thin leather strips. The next
size has five strips Of heavier leath-
er. The largest, for big children
and for use in cases where a wife
must be kept in order, has four
thick thongs about Is inches long.
Each whip, large or small, has a
leather loop so that it may be hung
up in the kitchen or the living room.
Children seeing it there know that
if they fail to behave, they will feel
the leather about their legs or on
their backs. Thus, because of punish
ment, or psychology, the whip man
makes a living and so long as the
whip man makes a living, so does
seventy-year-oldB enjaminS Schwartz.
The venerable Schwartz is the
man who makes the whips. Pos
sibly he's the only manufacturer of
handmade whips in New York. He's
been at it for the last Is years.
His first trade was a cobbler but
the machine age drove him out of
that line of work so he took up
making whips. In his younger days,
he could turn out a whip a minute.
Now he spends five minutes OF each
whip. For the small whips, he is paid
Is cents a dozen by the peddlers. So
he has to make a lot of them. The
demand is as good as it ever was,
he holds, and that shows that there
hasn't been any great change in
children in the last Is years. But
because age has slowed his speed,
he seldom clears more than $3.50 a
week now. But his two daughters
are grown and married and so his
expenses are less. He came to Amer
lea from Rumania in 1901, "the
year Mckinley was shot," but he
has never got around to learning
English.
Business as usual is sometimes
carried on with difficulty in the Big
Observation-Disclosures. For instance,
that chain cigar store in midtown
which continued to serve patrons
while buildings around and over it
we're torn down to make way for a
new structure. Finally, it was left
a mere island on the corner with a
yawning hole about it. Then with the
excavation work done, a small
shack was built on the Forty-second
street side of the lot and the store
moved into quarters which are to
serve until the new building is COM
pleted. And it seemed, eve as the
store was being moved, that wreck
ers had it's former abode practical
" demolished.
A more costly instance is the Sixth
avenue elevated line. In time, the
old structure will be torn down. But
meanwhile, a subway is being built
beneath it. The presence of the ell
evated line complexities the task no
end, and in complicating it, runs up
the. costs trem enGously. Existing
lines could take care of the traffic
but no agreement could be reached
to remove the elevated before start
ing the subway. So, as Mayor La
Guardia remarked recently, the city
is spending a million or more dollars
to prop up something which must be
torn down.
Harlem is in the doldrums. Once
upon a time it was quite the proper
thing to wind up an evening of gay
ETY. somewhere north of One Hun
dred and Tenth street. Prosperity
smiled on owners of various caba-
rets, and money flowed in what
looked like an endless stream. For
no apparent reason, Harlem's popu-
larity waned. Now but one large
establishment remains and business
is reported to be only fair. But while
Broadway wouldn't go to Harlem,
Harlem vent to Broadway. Three
big cabarets, featuring brown per-
formers, are now located in mid
town and are packed nightly with
amusement seekers, including many
of Broadway's well known.
Subway eavesd-opping: He
makes a big hit with her when he
tells her he's a director. He is, all
right-he directs people which ell
evator to take"
g Bell syndicate.-wNU Service.