OCR Text |
Show Lights of New York bll-stevenson Four hundred and fifty thousand persons walk daily on Forty-second street, according to a bulletin Issued Is-sued recently by the Forty-second Street Property Owners' and Merchants' Mer-chants' association. Those who walk on midtown's principal east and west arteries do so from choice, however. Ttfenty-seven thousand vehicles travel it each day. It Is crossed by seven subway lines, four elevated lines, five bus lines, eleven surface lines and on It are four railroad rail-road stations. At the west end It ls possible to take Hudson river and Sandy Hook boats and excursion boats to almost anywhere, as well as the Weehawken ferry. It even has a subway of Its ovrn, the shuttle shut-tle line connecting rand Central and Times Square, which carrlr-hundreds carrlr-hundreds of thousands of passen gers each day. Repeatedly plans have been submitted for a moving sidewalk between those two points. Still, the 450,000 dally workers are a mere handfuL In the space ol 12 months, the association reports 242.230.24-1 tickets for busses, boats, trolleys, subways and elevated lines were sold on Forty-second street A million persons, the association associa-tion figures, live within walking distance dis-tance of Forty-second street Count Ing those who get there by cars and busses, the total Is 2,500.000. Within With-in a radius of 100 miles, the popu latlon Is 12.000.000. Fifty-two thousand thou-sand persons are employed on Forty-second street, and 5.000,000 persons per-sons are fed there each year. For ty-second street merchants sell al most anything. Forty-second street Is only about 10,500 feet long but It connects New Jersey and Long Island. Taking It all In all, it's quite an Important street. In the eyes of the association, at least Here's where I score a scoop on the association at least no mention men-tion was made of It in the bulletin. On Forty-second street are a num ber of theaters. Business being what It Is, owners are turning a tidy penny by renting the lobbies to pitchmen.1' The rentals, accord Ing to my informant run from $300 to SHOO a month. Forty-second street attracts a lot of Idlers. Pitchmen do the rest They work hard and fast since a rental of $500 a montb necessitates a big take. Experts all of them, If there is a dime in the pocket It usually can be extracted. Like to listen to a high pitch. A high pitch, as explained by my guide, Is one where the pitch mj? i gives a more or less learned lecture of more than the usual length. The high pitches Indicate considerable education, acquired possibly net In college, but In .one way or another. Anyway, they sound learned.,' Words are cleverly used and the an of suggestion Is most highly developed. A touch of mystery Is added to the most prosaic pro-saic subject The high pitchmen are expert psychologists also. They can size up a J crowd In an Instant and rarely make a mistake. So dimes come even from unwilling pockets, the rent Is made, and so are profits. &. 1933. Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. |