The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-30
In New York
By GEORGE ROSS

New York, Dec. 30-A thriving, novel concern in Manhattan is the Shirt Rental Company.
 | Yes, men have taken to leasing shirts instead of buying them. And if things keep up at this rate, we will be paying monthly meter read- ings soon on our toothbrush strokes.
 But to get back to the leased shirts. Some time ago, the Shirt Rental Company made this proposi- ton to men of Manhattan: for fifty cents the shirt renters would supply the customer with three freshly laundered shirts per week. The shirts were to be made to the GUS toner's measurements and out of any cloth of his selection. Furthermore, they were to be mended, replaced if frayed around the collar or sleeves and ironed exactly as the patron specified. i And there was to be no chance of the shirts falling into other hands for the customers name was to be indelibly stamped on the tails.
 Of course, the shirt renters de- mand some assurance that the cus- toner wouldn't walk out on his cus- i tom made shirts and the deal in I week. They insist upon a years contract, but they don't limit the patron to three shirts week. For graduated fees, the patron can have four or five or six or eight. | The idea has not been failure There were four hundred men sub Scribing to these leased shirts, when we poked our head in to investigate the venture.
 Shutter-uppers
 A couple of over the table cloth raconteurs were matching after dinner speeches at Dinty Moore's and the fellow on the right recalled the night last year when Willie Collier attended dinner given by Uncle Sam,S military services. i One orator after another droned on and finally it came Golfers turn. ,Wearily, he dragged himself to his feet and said slowly, Gentle men, I'm glad came here tonight Now I know what they mean by the Army and Navy forever"
 Which reminded the chap on the left of the time Wilton Lackaye went to an Astor banquet. He list ened patiently while the toaStmaster prattled for a half hour. Finally, the chairman stopped, drew breath and said, "Mr Lackaye will now give us his address"
 Lackaye looked about him and said quietly, My address is the Lambs Club" And he sat down. Broadway, the Eternal Street & For classical information we often patronize Wilfred J. Funk. the man who keeps the dictionary up-to-date and does research in the archives of ancient Rome.
 Now Funk makes new observa- tion: Rome, he insists, had its Broadway 1900 years ago. It was called the Via Lata, literally trans lated as Broadway. It was pretty much the same, says Funk.
 Talk of Broadway traffic = the streets of the Via Lata were so congested, the officer in charge of vehicles ordered all heavy trucking to move only in the middle of the night. And the noise in midtown was traffic.
 According to our claSsicist, the Roman poet Juvenal complained of the din in the forum below and the torchlights and the Roman equivalents of our cheap auction stores, orange drink stands and shoe-shine emporiums. Juyenal said he couldn't sleep.
 But that was because the Rom an poet wouldn't budge from the Roman Rialto, when he could have been living on Esquiline Hill over on Rome's East Side, which was much like our own serene Sutton Place.
 Copyright. 1888, NEA Service)