Smyrna times., 1939-01-05
SIDE LIGHTS OF
NEW YORK CITY
Told By L. L. Stevenson in
His Own Immical Way
of DOings in City
INTERESTING SKETCHES

Short Story: On his return home
after number of fruitless and dis
couraging editorial calls, young
author opened his briefcase and
found not the three manuscripts
with which he had started but col
lection of frilly, feminine silk things.
His wife didn't make any comments
but he didn't like the look in her
eye, so when he started to back
track the next morning, he wasn't
in exactly good spirits. Nor did
they rise any, when on his second
stop, he discovered that the unin-
tended exchange had been made
with a woman fiction editor whom
he had been trying for some time
to interest in his work. No end
embarrassed, he started to apollo
gize for his carelessness. She cut
him short She too hadn't discov-
cred the error until she had reached
her apartment. Then, moved by GU
riosity, which even editors seem to
have, she read the manuscripts
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cided to accept all three stories.
Samaritan: AS is well known, New
York's many pigeon focks have GER
tain friends who make it their busi-
ness to feed them regularly. Spar
rows, also numerous, are not so for
+,,1o+o DIT ~ ~ Riuarcida drive
every afternoon, a bent little man,
with a face like russet apple that
has been kept in the cellar all win
ter, appears with a bag Of feed and
gives the sparrows treat. A bit
hesitant about being interviewed, he
finally explained by saying that he
had a fellow feeling for sparrows
because they have so few friends.
At first, he chased all the pigeons
away before spreading food. Now
the sparrows perform that task
themselves so that everything is
ready when he arrives. Pigeons
are dumb anyway. he continued. On
the other hand, sparrows are smart,
the proof lying in the fact that they
are able to pick up a living in New
York. With that, he avoided fur
ther questions by walking away.
Boss: Up in the Bronx is rather
large apartment house, which has a
rule that tenants can't sit out in
front on folding chairs. There are
also a number of other rules, in
cluding one about wasting hot wa
ter, but the no-sitting regulation is
enforced strictly by an elevator man
who also acts as doorman. There
is one exception, however, a large,
silvery haired, motherly looking
woman. At two o'clock each pleas
ant afternoon, she comes out with
her chair and, beaming at passers-
by, sits and knits until FIVE when she
goes inside. Instead of reminding
her Of the rule, the guardian carries
her chair out and in for her. She
owns the building.
Staff of Life: Just about any kind
of bread the world knows is baked
regularly in New York. True, all
kinds cannot be obtained in bakeries
because of insufficient demand. Yet
day after day. New York's bakeries
turn out II different varieties of for
eign bread. AS a matter of fact,
even a Laplander can step into a
bakery and obtain exactly the same
kind of bread-I can neither pro-
nounce nor spell the name of it-as
relatives and friends in the home
land have as regular fare.
New York: Amid the hurrying
hundreds on lower Broadway at the
close of the business day, a profess
sional man on his way from his Of
fee to the subway slipped and would
have suffered a bad fall had not
another man caught him. There
were thanks, of course, and during
the ensuing conversation, they dis
covered tho they had been living