The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-07-17
By ROBERT L. RIPLEY Dear Walter:

Dy AsOOEAS4 As AsAA A14 Dear Walter:
 Your favorite city, New York. Is not only the most popular city in America this summer-It is the most amazing city in the world-- Believe It or Not!
 New Workers travel farther up and down than they do laterally be- cause of the thousands of elevators in the high buildings. The largest bedroom in the world is here-the Municipal Lodging House, East 25th Street, New York City. It can accommodate 1700 men. It is one room, with no parti- tions.
 Panhandlers-lean men who ask you for nickel for cup of coffee collect approximately $100000 every "A hours in Greater New Yorkl
 Incidentally, the Hudson River is not riverl It's valley into which the ocean has flowed. The tide rises and falls more than 140 miles up the Hudson.
 New York City has more islands than Venicel-164 islands lie in the city limits; Venice has only 119.
 You can send a dog faster by mail in New York than by taxi or subwayl By using the pneumatic mail tubes, a dog could get from City Hall to Grand Central Ter minal, distance of five miles, fas- ter than by taxi or subway.
 A ship leaves New York every forty minutes, and train arrives in New York every 52 seconds!
 New York has hospital for sick pet fishl
 The statute of Liberty stands on a prisonl Its foundation is an old prison in which military offenders were confined.
 Incidentally, the Canarsie Indians, who sold Manhattan to Peter Minuit for $24.18, were not cheatedl They did the cheating. They sold some- thing they didn't own. The Dutch had to buy the island seven more times from different tribes before 1t finally belonged to them.
 Officially there is no such place as Long Island, Believe It or Not Its legal name is the Island of Nas- sau. The bill naming 1t that was passed by the New York Legislature, and never has been, changed or voided.
 You can ride 28 miles for five cents on New York subway-the cheapest transportation in the world.
 The name "Mannahatin" is an Indian word which means Place of Drunkenness" Maybe the In- dions foresaw the whoopee that has made Manhattan the country's gay spot.
 If you'll just step inside my Od- ditoriun you'll come out with swell column-"Things You Never Knew Til You Visited the Oddi- tosium."
 For instance, you probably never knew till now that Lucrezia Borgia's l poison cabinet, which I brought to America just recently, is still dan- gerous-the poison needle in the deadly lock that killed her dis carded lovers still will injure any, one who doesn't know its secret.
 That Clarence Rivers, the liquid air genius, blows ice cubes instead of smoke rings after he breathes the 365- degrees -below-zero stuff! That Henry Hull, Jr., son of the famous actor, is preparing for a radio announcers career-he's one of my ace announcers.
 That even firing squad couldn't kill |Yenceslao Moguel, the Scarface of Yucatan. He bears nine bullet scars inflicted when he was execut- ed during revolution in Mexico. Like many a vaccination, the execu- ton didn't take, Believe It or Not!
 That Helen Martin, of Kansas City, can play the piano like 8 concert artist, though she is deaf and blind.
 That Tony Ruscigna, of New York, is so tough 8 disappointed knife dropped on his stomach does- mt even make an impression.
 That the crucifix fish is actually worshipped by natives in the West Indies.
 That a totem pole is an Indians family tree. Every one of the weird figures carved on the pole represents the can of one of the ancestors.
 That Hananuma Masakichi, the great Japanese artist, made such perfect image of himself, carved of wood, and giving the statute his own teeth, finger-nails, toe-nails, hair, eye-lashes and brows, you would swear it was living and breathingl
 That, during the French Revolu- ton, there was human tannery at Meudon, which utilized the skin of