The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-23

'
 |. n squalor with
 shocking speed.
 The building isssissJ that houses this white elephant of the towns en- tertainment zone is one of those two-story modernistic creations. It replaced a block of tall build ings only a short time ago. Now Broadway is beginning to ask whether it's worth while to de- molish the tall buildings if you can't make the two-story tax payers" pay their taxes out of rentals.
 The answer seems to be that the International Casino was too ex- travagant in every respect, even for New York night life. The crowds wouldn't pay the prices re- quired to keep 1t going.
 The New York Worlds Fair Is almost surrounded by cemetries, many of them very old. The mea- dows about Flushing were consid- cred ideally situated for burial plots when the City was still miles away, So cities of the dead stretch away for miles toward the higher, rolling ground that rises from the marsh.
 Old residents have told me, and 1t seems not incredible, that more than q million dead occupy these rolling acres, within sight of the fair grounds.
 There is @ simile in common use among the people of the mid- town East Side: "As high as Peter Dodgers monument" It is par ticularly the property of families of Irish descent, long resident in that neighborhood.
 A generation or more ago Peter Dodgers brewery was an impor- tant factor in the life of the East Side. Blocks of the old brewery still stand, but no beer is brewed there now.
 When Peter Doelger died his family erected a monument over his grave in Calvary cemetry that was the talk of the town. The monument still stands. but 1t isn't very impressive in a city that has become accustomed to the Empire State and many other tall towers. The talk around the bar at Billy's, ct 5lst street and First ave- nue still brings out the old simile once in while. Sure, I tell you they've got pile of coal down there on the dock, as high as Peter Dodgers monumentl" The ceme- tery Is miles away, and many of these people never saw 1t. nor do they stop to consider whether the monument Is a real thing or Q myth. It's just @ good, round mouthful of language.
 Like sixty" "mile-a- minute" and sixty miles an hour' were common expressions to indicate "very fast" during my youth. When the great John R. Gentry made @ record at the Fair Grounds track. onlookers said, You should have seen him coming down the home stretch e mile e minutel" They didn't mean that he actually went that fast; just fast that's all.
 These expressions have died out because they mean nothing in time when any motorist can drive faster than sixty if he wants to take @ chance.
 Vincent sardi, smiling proprie- tor of a 44th street eating place frequented by theatrical and liter ary folk, never forgets a face or name. That memory is the foun- dalton of his success. It is hardly possible to visit the restaurant twice without being called by name. no matter how much of a stranger you may be. Sardi insists upon name-calling by employees, too. Most of the staff emulates the proprietor carefully, and the customers appreciate 1t. Dale Car negie Is right about that; every body loves the sound of his own name.
 If Sardi has a memory system, he never tells anybody. But I note that he scans every face carefully, as If to preserve a mental photo- graph of 1t.
 A sure-fire system of going to sleep at will would bring the big gest reward in today's market, 1 think. am one of those trouble- some three o'clockers. About three I awaken. drowsily turn over a dream or two, and soon am all set to get up and write e column. Just as I'm about to call it 6 day and go back to sleep, the milk man comes, fighting the gears in his laboring truck.
 I've invented scores of systems, but they all wear out. One that worked for e year or 50 was 6 complicated scheme of counting Up twenty minutes, partly forward and partly backward.
 My friend Frank Markey is sound asleep five minutes after lying down. and never wakes Up until shaken soundly. I asked for his system.
 "System?" he said, with appar- ent surprise. "Why I just say to myself that it's time to go to sleep, and by the time I get 1t said I'm unconscious"
 I think that's even more valu- able than Sardis memory for names and faces.
 Copyright, 1889. McNaught
 Syndicate)
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