The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-08
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER


making people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-It is not my purpose to at
tack condition with theory but, freely
granting that many persons are tearing up
money IN New York these nights for the metal
lie yowlng and the tom-tom sounds which
pass for entertainment, and for hootch, rare
viands ana exotic delicacies, I still would like
to know who they and where they get it.
No war factory workers surely, because
such people are not beyond the rye-high and
fried chicken stage of their social develop
ment; they frequent gritty little taverns Of
60 renown in the city streets and leafy ont
skirts Of Passaic, Long Island and Bridgeport
where Saturday night sport who lifts tab
fer $40 is still live one. Nor prominent en-
ecutives of soulless corporations, because
times are grim and the spectre of penniless
old age haunts men lately about town who
used to sign tabs with a gesture known as
nonchalant flourish and settle accounts by
check at the end of the month. Moreover
The prominent executives are growing elderly
and need their sleep to fit them for the NOR.
rows fray with the bargaineers of labor, the
renegotiation men, the Treasury, their law
yers and operating details once managed by
subordnates now vanished to the war.
AS for the rest of the old guard, once as
much at home in the grand saloons as Harry
Hopkins in the White House. the income tax
has set them into losing race with faltering
hearts and weary on treadnliD which gains
against them day by day If alimony is de-
ductible from taxable income it is still a dead
loss too; and some earnest seekers Of hap
piness are paying double and still experiment.
ing bravely with new partners on net incomes
which are only pallid phantoms OF the gross.
There is, in fact, very little frivolous money
left out of any large income nowadays for
with the rise of taxes there has been no com
pensating fall in personal commitments, in.
GLIDING off premises dependents, insurance
and a minimum of front. New York mer
chant prince confded lately in a restaurant
strictly on the quaint and seamy side that
his accountants had told him he must gait
himself to a maximum of $4,000 a year for
all purposes, including apartment and coun
| try house, servants, upkeep and repairs, al
/ coholic beverages and such helllng-around the
| town as, in these conditions, he felt he could
| afford. Another bourgeoise, with weakness
for suburban life and ilacs in the spring and
| an undivided 20 acres of Gods great outdoors,
when tackled for rise to $3.50 by ravenouS
pair of privileged but not over-compe-
tent in-servants, tried to counter with the prop
osition that even then, at 1920 month, plus
quarters, heat light and food, they were max
| ing more than he was, net.
But" said the female of the species who
had been chosen as bargaining agent you
live in very expensive house."
"And so do you,' said he. A futile waste
of ready repartee.
/ Lucius Beebe, a recognized authority on gin
mills, has limited that refugees may be set.
ting the killing pace which drives the melan-
choly native to Joe's lunch and the hot-dog
counters but fault him peremptorily on an
incident in which, he said, a refugee from
France bought drink at Pierre's with a
$100 bill, and babe the barman never mind
| the change. Mr.. Beebe will be stoutly disbe-
lieved because no Frenchman ever told any
one to keep any change and no Frenchman
ever bought drink.
Still, somebody must be spending 1t for the
town is crowded to the curbs at night and not
even the late George Lamaze, that audacious
| fry cock who introduced the four-dollar ONE
lette to the etherized elite of Palm Beach,
Park Avenue and finally, Chicago, in the
prosperous day of Calvin Coolidge, ever had
the gall to use the bat as heavily To speak
of a $50 check for a modest lunch for two
is to exaggerate slightly, for lady and gent
can bail out for $40, but $500 is not too much
for night of mild rejoicing and the prices
of the lesser joints are such that first Ieuten-
ant and his girl are wise to consider spot
on the curb with a can of SPAN, a box OF
crackers and bottle of beer between them
Enlisted men are just Tommy Atkins reborn
| MY sources among CIle SdlOOH hSCpClS ICAi
be that the refugee has been given false
reputation. He does not get around but true
to the ancient faith of Europeans, and par
| ticularly Frenchmen, he is unfamiliar with
American money, doesn't want to be rude
and grab for the check and therefore is a
guest forever.
Who then? War contractors from out OF
town, mostly strangers around here, whose
expense accounts, for conferences of vital I'M
portance in New York, are added to the cost
of arning and providing the brave lads IN
Italy and eventually will be paid by them
along with other costs when they come back
and, for the rest of their lives pay for their
own war
) Gandhi, the news dispatches tell u.s. mas
been set free by the British Indian authorities
because he is sick. 1t could be, suggests
Zadok Dumpkopf, that the government was SICK e
! too-of having the Mahatma as Strlctiy
non-paying guest.
-V
An astronomer says the sun is realy a
million miles farther away than we thougnt'