Show BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET Professional Blind Man Mn Gag to to the Very Finish By BILLY ROSE Last night in a mood for malt and malarkey I stopped in to chin with Sammy Fuchs proprietor of the Bowery Follies and honorary honorary honorary hon hon- mayor of that unwashed neck of the Manhattan woods new and gruesome in your I asked mine host Nothing much said Sammy except that Faker Kennedy died l last st week and cit eft his t eyes es to a bartender down the bloc block Co again J I said According to the Faker was a professional blind man who had nad been rattling a tin un cup on the Bowery tor foras long as he could I remember In spite of his calling however it was a standing joke I around the flophouses that the cane cane- could shoot off oU a bugs bug's ear at a hundred paces We used to kid Kennedy about his blindness s said a aid i d s Sammy but h he e enever never let on it was an act act if if it was an act And we were never sure because no one ever saw the theold theold theold old coot without his smoked glasses Down at Gargan's Gar Gar- Billy Rose Bose gans gan's Bar where the Faker used to hang out after hours Sammy continued the proprietor had a kind of running gag at the bums bum's expense I When you die he used to say II will me your eyes Mine are arc gettin gettin get get- tin pretty tired from lookin at atthe atthe atthe the sawdust I I I Ill leave em to ya Gargan was wa the Fakers Faker's stock answer And they'll come ome in handy if ya ever want to play marbles S S S about how the talk went until one night not long ago wh when n na na a couple of stick men walked into Gargan's and lined the customers cus cusS up against the wall wall all all except ex cx the Faker who didn't budge from rom his usual place at the end of at atthe the bar After the punks had cleaned out the register and what little was In Inthe Inthe inthe the customers' customers pockets one of them walked up to the Faker and jabbed a gun in his ribs N Ity You au wouldn't wouldn 1 take lak Pennies from rom a blind man mini would woul yaP said taid Kennedy Donl Dont that ILat pennies stuff stu said th the thug Y You ou guys always got a II roll on ya ya The Faker made out as if he was fumbling in his pockets and then suddenly made a grab for tor the gun yanked Jt It away from the hood bood and bopped him over the head bead with it it Then using the body as a sort sortI I of shield he pointed the gun at the theother theother theother other punk Drop yer pistol he said or orIll orIll or orIll Ill I'll shoot the cigar yer mouth Well it so h happened the thug did have a cigar in his mouth and when he heard the blind mans man's on button reference to it he got panIcky pan pan- icky and dropped his gun A dozen guys jumped him and a few minutes min mm utes later he and his pal were inthe in inthe the precinct house S S S After that of course everybody on the Bowery was sure the Faker was a fake but he never owned up They got me all wrong he once told me The up stick guy was an Italian stogie and ya can smell them things a block away And I guessed it was in his mouth by the way he talked A couple l oj of weeks ago Sammy went on Faker Fake Kennedy Ken nedy got gol pneumonia and th the th day after tN his bh body was earl carted d off 1 to 10 Potters Potter's Field a package showed up it in Gargan's mail with a pair pai of 0 glass eyes y s. s Sounds like the old man was telling the truth after all all I said Nobody Is convinced one way or orthe the other said the Mayor of ot the Bowery y Maybe the eyes came carrie out of the Fakers Faker's head and then again maybe he picked them up in a hock hock- shop You know you never can tell teU about these cuckoos cuckoos he he might have wanted to play the gag out to th thA nil niL an |