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Show - Lights of NewYork By L. L. STEVENSON Ramblings and Ruminations: A mounted policeman's horse on West Forty-fourth street standing with its hind legs crossed ... A white-haired, red-faced panhandler pleading for three cents so he can buy himself a cooling drink ... A slim young woman dropping a letter into a mail box and starting to sob as the lid bangs shut ... A bedraggled be-draggled mutt nosing garbage scraps dropped as cans are being removed from a restaurant basement base-ment to a waiting truck ... A man about the size of the state of Texas and wearing a 10-gallon hat, jack-knifing jack-knifing himself into a taxi, a feat seemingly impossible . . . Firemen expertly guiding a hook and ladder truck into that Eighth avenue and Forty-eighth street firehouse which is so narrow it looks like a slit in the wall ... A close knit young man whose beard shows blueblack though he still smells of a barber shop, dropping a handful of small change into an old blind man's tin cup. An Indian, all done up in feathered feath-ered head dress and buckskin pants, wobbling up Broadway, firewater making his legs unreliable . . . That "100 per cent pure beef" hamburger ham-burger place, where patrons watched the meat being ground, closed and with a "for rent" sign in the window. Three Broadway clocks within the space of a few blocks, all telling the time differently . . . and my wrist watch not agreeing agree-ing with any of them ... A woman, her gray hair caught in a tight little knot on the back of her bead, darting out into traffic and boarding the trolley car which the motorman has kept waiting for her . . . Out-of-towners standing in front of a cut rate souvenir store and arguing argu-ing whether they shall make purchases pur-chases for the folks back home immediately, im-mediately, or wait until they are ready to depart. A big interstate bus with "World's Fair Route" in prominent letters on both sides . . . Just a bit behind the times, that's all ... A vacant store where until recently my favorite fa-vorite haberdashery was located. Used to like to window shop while going to and from the bank that cashes my pay checks . . . Kept up on what the well-dressed man should wear that way ... A row of grinning bootblacks, ranging in shade from light brown to very dark, pointing at the shoes of pass-ersby pass-ersby . . . The delicatessen which was the first to receive beer on Broadway when the brew became legal again . . . and was almost wrecked by the fierce inrush of thirsty customers though the hour was two in the morning ... I'd do a lot better typing if I hadn't injured in-jured my index finger while trying to adjust a chaise longue on the terrace. Women workers going into the Fifth avenue headquarters of the British War Relief society, an organization or-ganization which has collected $10,000,000 from more than 1,200,000 donors for the assistance of England's Eng-land's civilian population . . . and $2,000,000 more in articles of various kinds from tooth brushes to clothing ... A soldier, his breast glittering with medals, keeping his eyes straight ahead though an auburn-haired auburn-haired miss, with the whitest and evenest teeth I've ever seen, smiles at him ... A crowd watching the sea lions in Promethus' pool in Rockefeller plaza and the antics of the animals seeming to indicate that they are enjoying the attention they are attracting. An ambulance gliding through Forty-second street traffic with its siren moaning . . . Somebody evidently evi-dently injured as the interne is riding rid-ing inside instead of on the back step ... A pitchman attracting a crowd by starting a card trick and going into his sales talk without completing it . . . Military insignia in the windows of various stores, everything from a sergeant's chevrons chev-rons to a colonel's eagle . . . That Hollywood custom of shirt tail out seems to have struck Forty-second street harder than any other section of New York . . But maybe a man's cooler going around that way ... An open-faced establishment where a glass of root beer is free with every hot dog. - A small white-haired woman jumps up in great consternation at the headquarters of the America First committee alter a stirring speech by a chairwoman . . . The reason for Iter dismay becomes clear when site explains that she has come to the wrong place . . . Her destination is the British War Relief society right r.ex' door. |
