The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-03

E$$$z $H1 W 6 on II Ez Easy Come,
 s%|z% Easy Go basis.
 {. y.E E#%#z He hasn't t nszSz4 written pulp lished story in a long time. In recent years, he has sought much of his inspiration in the liquid magic that turks in the bottle. Instead of squirting him on to toll, it merely made him maudlin and drowsy.
 Now he frequents two or three Village pubs where his credit is dubious and on several occasions he literally has sung for his sup- per.
 A local Pepys on a paper thought it mighty funny to ob- serve the poor devil leaping for pitched dimes and quarters as his reward for a song in Greenwich Village hangout for pseudo-Bohe- mians and tourists, whereas it was pretty pitiful.
 His name, were we to mention it, would meet with immediate recognition. But give the poor fellow the solace of anonymity, at least.
 His head droops over corner table many times after all the cus- toners have left-and one or two proprietors have enough respect for what he was, not to heave him out.
 FANCY FRONTS
 Round Victor Moore was say- ing the other night that he dia- mond flashing era has passed among showmen.
 Two or three decades ago, he recalls, showmen needed f1aShy baubles on their cravats, across their vests or on their fingers. Without them, they could not con- duct their business. The possess sion of genuine Sparklers meant aff1uence and no actor worth his salt would act for a man who did not look as if he could pay off, by hooking his valuableS.
 Many showmen of that era, says the gently comic Moore, used to rent jewelry out for a day, when they were assembling actors for a play, just as they would rent a horse and buggy or office furni- ture.
 GOLDEN DIVE
 "Want to make five million dol- lars?" asked an inquisitiye pal the other night. I said I wouldn't mind.
 well" said the friend who spends half his lite exploring facts about the town, T read in an authentic document the other day about five millions in gold waiting for someone to come down and get it at the bottom of the East River"
 The gold Che went on) sank with the British freighter, Hussar, back in 1776 when the boat struck a rock off Hell Gate, and no Sal- wager, has successfully def1ed the treacherous currents since then. So goes our friends information. I doubt that I'll don diving suit and plummet to the bottom. But it is nice to know that the five millions may be there. waiting for me.
 WHALE TALE
 According to Carl Garner, the pace for the American tall story was set by the great Benjamin Franklin"
 It seems that Franklin-scien- tist, statesman, satirist and schol- ar-was disgusted with inaccurate accounts of his country in the London newspapers, placed there by Englishmen who had been only short-time visitors to America.
 So he wrote to the London Times of the American sheep
 whose tails were so heavy with wool that it was necessary to rest them on little carts trundled be- hind; and of the American cod fisheries in the Great Lakes, the salt water fish having been driven into fresh water by hungry whales.
 But let them know, Sir" Ben Franklin continued, that the grand leap of the whale in the chase up the falls of Niagara is esteemed by all who have seen it as one of the finest spectacleS of nature!"
 BRITISH BARBS
 Not that Ben Franklin succeed ed in toning down the English fondness for heckling us. They still do it..
 The other night, I heard a Britisher bitterly complain that there wasn't a bar in the theater, pointing out that every London playhouse had one. They told the Britisher that Manhattan playgo- CTS like to remain reasonably so- Der through the play. It didn't convince him.
 The Londone7s audibly scorn the crude American palate that takes whiskey and soda, chilled with ice, instead of taking it luke warm. And that would be per- fectly all right with us, if they did not toss in the harpoon, besides, and put it to the waiter this way: Don't spoil my whiskey and soda with ice."
 Ben Franklin might have re- torted, Go fly kite!"
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