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Show Lights of NewYork By L. L. STEVENSON Meanderings and Meditations: A little colored bootblack on a side street just off Broadway, playing "Night and Day" on a harmonica and doing it so well he collects far more nickels and dimes than do his companions who merely make shoes glisten ... A stately young woman, either an actress or a model, standing stand-ing in front of a window mirror and doing a little work with an eyebrow eye-brow pencil ... A tottering mendicant mendi-cant extending a grimy paw and begging for "some change" to help him get his laundry out so he can go to work . . . College lads attracting a lot of attention in Times square In some kind of an initiation stunt in which victims are barelegged and have ropes about their necks . . . Two soldiers who look as if they had never been in the city before, apparently ap-parently getting a kick out of the never-ending Broadway streams of humanity. A stalwart sailor leaving a mighty pretty girl standing at 50th street while he hurries up to another sailor, evidently a shipmate, and makes a quick $5 touch . . . and with the fiver safely stowed away, hastily rejoining re-joining the gal . . . Evidently they are going places ... An old actor, scrapbook under his arm and seemingly seem-ingly resting while touring the agencies, agen-cies, frowning as two young Thespians Thes-pians give vent to their opinions of the stage of the past ... He looks as if he were about to put In a few words for the defense but shakes his head and goes on his way . . . A big garbage truck causing a Broadway traffic snarl by stopping to make collections at 46th street . . . Taxi drivers seem to be mightily might-ily annoyed but the motorman of a trolley car merely leans back and relaxes as the city employees go about their business unhurriedly. Soldiers, sailors and marines massed about the Father Duffy statue . . . Not a military formation, forma-tion, just a bunch of lads waiting for their dates . ... . Or hoping to get one ... A big advertising clock announcing an hour that has passed into eternity an hour and a half previously pre-viously . . . That cigaret smoking soldier boy wearing a steel helmet now . . . Expecting a Times square air raid? . . Four Chinese lads in the uniform of the United States army . . . and bearing themselves as if extremely proud of their attire Out-of-towners getting a kick out of putting nickels into slots in an automat. A 42nd street sandwich man stopping stop-ping to adjust his boards . . . and voicing complaints because the makers don't take any thought for the comfort of those who wear them . . . Two pert little misses admiring an exhibit of feminine shoes and lamenting because they have used their coupons . . . and in the same block, a handsome, stalwart, redheaded red-headed young soldier making his way slowly on crutches because he has sacrificed, a leg for his country ... A Giant and a Dodger fan engaging en-gaging in such a hot argument over the merits of their teams that a cop finally orders them to pipe down . . . and as the bluecoat starts on his way, he remarks to a companion, "The Yanks are the only team worth bothering about, anyway" . . . Youngsters inspecting a display of unrationed items in a sporting goods store window. A Crosstown trolley motorman hopping out to help a crippled man board the car ... An act all the more courteous because the motor-man motor-man is far from being young . . . Bryant Park bench sitters catching up on their reading, some with their noses buried in newspapers and others in books they have borrowed from the nearby public library . . . Sunbeams playing with the chromium chromi-um cap of the Empire State building tower . . . Bundle-laden women shoppers treading subway steps as gingerly as if their feet were glass . . . Wonder what's become of those salesmen who used to peddle woolens wool-ens allegedly smuggled into this country ... A group of Indians in full regalia padding along as if they were a scalping party . . . But they are merely selling war bonds. Olio: The Mexican government is about to launch an extensive campaign cam-paign to attract American workers south of the border for their vacations vaca-tions . . . Miguelito Valdez, Afro-Cuban Afro-Cuban song star, dislikes signing autograph books. The reason: His full name is Eugenio Lazaro Miguel Izquierso Valdezy Herandez . . . Brenda Forbes, Blue Angel comedienne, comedi-enne, who has played the part of housemaid to Greer Garson, Katharine Kath-arine Cornell and Orson Welles in stage and screen productions, throws a yearly party for her own maid who is her severest critic. Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. |