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Show Lights ofNewYork By L. L. STEVENSON Tragedy: She is a cleaning woman wom-an who takes care of the suite of offices occupied by a publicity concern con-cern which handles a number of night club accounts. But though the owner and staff are fully conversant con-versant with things that happen along Broadway and know much about the characters of that street, the cleaning woman was merely a motherly looking figure who came on the job each evening just as the offices were being closed for the day. Her name was known of course but that was about all. Also it long had been noted that she was so regular in her appearance that she automatically announced quitting quit-ting time. The other afternoon, she arrived an hour ahead of schedule. The office manager and the staff looked at her in surprise. The cleaning clean-ing woman gave an explanation: "I have to get home early this afternoon after-noon . . . my Utile boy was killed." Shortage: Because so many husbands hus-bands and sons have gone into the army, moving day in New York this year witnessed greater compression com-pression than usual, the demand for smaller apartments not being nearly equal to the supply. Many couples moved from apartments into single rooms and thus arose a quest for two-burner electric stoves. Since they are no longer manufactured manufac-tured for civilian use, , the supply was soon exhausted. The ingenious made searches among second-hand stores, especially those on the East Side, and in some instances were successful. But one buyer had to pay $13.95 for a stove which, in the past, would have cost $6. He learned that the dealer, along with many others, had combed all the small towns in the vicinity of New York to buy various hard-to-obtain household articles and of course charged prices In keeping with his efforts. Transportation: In the past, under un-der a city ordinance, a New York taxi driver had to accept a fare, so long as he were sober, no matter mat-ter where he cared to go. But in these times with the driver restricted restrict-ed to a certain number of gallons of gasoline, as well as the distance dis-tance which he may travel, he can pick and choose. That means that those who desire to go from Manhattan Man-hattan to Brooklyn are out of luck. Residents of the far reaches of the Bronx fare no better. The drivers argue that, unless they can get a fare for the return trip, there is a waste of gas. Hence, an increase in-crease in subway travel. Incidentally, Inciden-tally, during the pleasure driving ban, the taxis had the streets just about to themselves and even now are "not bothered much," to quote one jehu, "by private cars." 1 Change: At the United States Merchant Marine academy at Kings Point, Long Island, there is a large and excellent band. The band supplies sup-plies music not only for various academy affairs but, as is the case with other service organizations, plays for drills and reviews. That of course means a lot of marching since the drill field is a huge place. The band, however, does it as though the members had been hiking hik-ing all their lives. As a matter of fact, many of the musicians are former members of New York night club orchestras and the drum major ma-jor is none other than Jimmy Smith, well-known orchestra leader. It might be added that the bandsmen no longer get their tan from barbershop bar-bershop sun lamps. Service: Soldiers, sailors and marines ma-rines who visit the Music Box Canteen Can-teen on lower Fifth avenue now find an entirely new free service facilities facili-ties for making a few winks of sleep possible no matter what is going go-ing on around them. In the second floor lounge there are comfortable chairs and couches. To the sleepy lad, ear stopples, scientifically designed de-signed and made of wax and cotton, cot-ton, are supplied. These shut out the strains of the juke box in the room below as well as noise made by players In the two adjoining game rooms. As further means of rest, a new horseshoe-shaped pillow pil-low is provided. It's known as a "fox hole pillow" and was invented by a veteran of World War I, the design being based on answers of hundreds of servicemen whom he queried about "catch-as-catch-can" sleeping, as swell as his own experiences. ex-periences. This and That: One small, tattered tat-tered sparrow chasing three sleek, fat pigeons away from a sidewalk crumb feast spread by some philanthropist philan-thropist . . . Taxicabs moving into Grand Central in a solid stream . . . Yet whenever I've wanted one, none seemed available until I tipped a porter to make a search . . . and the bigger the subsidy, the sooner the end of the wait. BeU Syndicate WNU Features. |
