| OCR Text |
Show LcS ' 1 far r'i ''..L;;iulBH.iia ABOUT NEW YORK The rare Chinese fruits hawked j in Chinatown are grown on Long Island. . . . Waterfront workers have j names for various piers. They are ; usually named after gals. . . . De- j spite the legend that Manhattan is i all stone and steel, the borough is 1 dotted with more than a hundred parks. . . . Thirty-two years after Columbus discovered America the strip of land known as Mann sit-, tan was discovered by Giovanni da Verrazanno. There isn't even a street named after him. j The lower end of Manhattan (between (be-tween the Battery and 14th St.) is the oldest section of the city. . . . During the 17th century Wall street was the favorite hangout for pirates. Coin your own wisecrack. . . . Greenwich Village originally attracted at-tracted struggling artists and scriveners scriv-eners because rents were cheap there. . . . Only one railroad ha3 entry for its freight into Manhattan by land the bulk of the railroad freight must be transshipped by tug and barge. Meals in the city's hoosegows are planned by expert dieticians. dieti-cians. No room service, however. how-ever. . . . The Battery derives its name from a British fort that was once situated there. . . . South St. is dominated by the sea. Sou'westers, sea boots, pea jackets, dungarees and other oth-er equipment for mariners are displayed in shop windows along this sector. Chinatown's notorious Tongs now are peaceful benevolent societies. . . . West St. is a man-made street. It used to be under water. . . . Those grimy edifices near Battery place reveal their pre-Civil war glory in carved lintels, arched doorways and ornate cornices. ... If you want to view the Big Burg's pell-mello-drama in action, go to the waterfront water-front where tunnels, railroads, ferryboats, fer-ryboats, subways, buses and road traffic clutter the sector with all types of transportation carrying passengers and products to and from the city. . . . Some of the Bowery's dismal buildings contain secret passages once used as hideouts hide-outs for criminals. The pungent aromas around Reade St. emanate from the huge warehouses there stored with coffee, tea and spices. . . . Syrian confectionery confec-tionery shops at the foot of Washington Wash-ington St. have the most unusual and tastiest goodies in town. . . . The most colorful edifice is the Western West-ern Union bldg. It's stacked with 13 different shades of bricks. . . Hart's Island ' prison hasn't any cells only dormitories. Hmf. Such airs! . . . There are dusty tablets marking almost every historic New York event. The plaque on the building build-ing in Exchange alley marks the site of the residence of the first white men on Manhattan. The Big Town's least known government bureau is the art commission. It okays the designs de-signs of all public buildings and works of art. . . . Didja know Radio City studios are coated with a special sound-insulating glue? . . . The architect who supervised the building of city hall received $6 per day a very good salary at that time. . . . No one need go hungry or homeless in our burg. The department de-partment of welfare is ready to provide food and shelter for all unfortunates. Then howcuro there are so many panhandlers? panhand-lers? Tombs prison derived its funereal name from its predecessor on that site, which resembled an Egyptian tomb. ... If you want a unique experience, ex-perience, see the Chinese films exhibited ex-hibited on the Bowery. . . . Central park was built as a relief project during a depression. Quilts hanging on poles advertise adver-tise a market for bed linens on Grand St. . . . Criminologists from many parts of the world witness the police department's daily line-up. . . . The Bowery slums were once the site of lavish farms. The Dutch word for farm is bouwerij. . . . The stretch between Delancey and Houston Sts. is jocularly known as Thieves' Market. Those who have small objects to exchange or sell congregate there. . . . Eighty per cent of the Waldorf is built over the tracks of the New York Central. . . The income from the elegant residential resi-dential district between Fifth Ave. and University PI. goes to support a home for poor sailors. The owner made that request in his will. Fourth Ave. has the longest row of second-hand book emporiums. Five blocks long. . . . One hotel in Greenwich Green-wich Village supplies chess sets gratis for its intellectual guests. . . . Poets tack their verses on a fence along Thompson St. and oiler them to passersby ' for two bits. . . . Allen Si. is a study in contrasts: Us j shops showcase the most priceless I antiques as well as the cheapest machine-made articles. . . , The Lexington thitlir lobby features an irnate fountain niit live goldish. |
