Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1916 — HAPPENINGS in the BIG CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS in the BIG CITIES

“Low Bridge” Is Often Heard in New York Now

NEW YORK.—David Haruip, was it not, who said in the company of wealthy and entirely fashionable men of New York that it would be fun to see how many of them would duck if he said "Lew bridge?” Right here

in the metropolis is the cry of warning now heard many times a day since* the Fifth avenue stages began to go up to Riverside drive. To get the full sensation of “low bridge” ascend to the very top of the stage somewhere in the neighborhood of St. Patrick’s Chthedral. You will thus be and prepared for anything when it takes a swift detour to at street! and plungek''tflotifg in front of Mrs. Vanderbilt’s house nnd then comes to

a shivering halt. “Now, then,” says the conductor, “all of you be careful. Here is where we go under the elevated railroad, and this company has been Tunning these stages up here for a long time and we ain’t never lost a life. It’s safe, all right, if you keep your head down and don’t get absent-minded, any of you, and raise up to smooth out your dress or anything like that. If you think of it, forget it.” Perhaps there is several feet or more of space above the head of the person of ordinary dimensions as the tall auto makes its dip under the elevated girders, but it doesn’t seem like it. The lady from afar who has invested in the highest creation in millinery extant feels that there is not half an inch to spare. She bends down until the mass of felt and feathers crunches against the rail of the stage. “That’s right; look out for your head, madam,” says the all-seeing conductor. “Don’t you mind my head,” says she; “I’ve had it for 35 years, but thishat I got today and I’m going to save it.” The stage again dives under the elevated structure at this spot, but the conductor usually sings out: “Low bridge again. Now, every mother s sou of you, low bridge, and if anything happens don’t forget that I told you to stay you was put.”