Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1917 — Gales of GOTHAM and other CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gales of GOTHAM and other CITIES

Two Amusing Stories About New York Street Cars NEW YORK.—If It hadn’t been for tielng up traffic on the busiest car line in this city, a conductor on a Broadway car would have caught the meanest and trickiest passenger who ever has cyme to his attention. The man

Boarded The car at Broadway and t-or-ty-cightii street.' H« . presented Jk trqpsfer which was tattered with age, and furthermore could not be accepted at that point. I The conductor told him so, but the man sat down, indicated • that ho was deaf and dumb, and took out a pad to argue out the matter with tlie conductori Both he and the conductor wrote out a full argument, which made steam rise from the conductoes collar and spoiled the whole trip for him.

At Eighteenth street, after endless communication, the man agreed to get off the car. When he had done so he walked toward the curb and called back, “You write a swell hand there, kid;” “ " The conductor lost his temper, pulled the bell for the motorman to stop, Jumped off the car and giive chase, but the passenger was too fleet. In the meantime the motorman was clanging his gong like mad. When the conaTCtdl* m'draed 'be asked him 1 f hewnsrrn ‘iyr n ™ The conductor of the north-bound Sixth avenue surface car held his hand ant for the slim man’s fare. The slim man began searching his slim suit and overcoat diligently. The conductor was patient, but after a moment startea on, saying lie would come back. ~ „ Presently he did, but* the slim man* was still searching. For the nrst time the conductor noticed that the man had a transfer in his mouth. He drew it forth, smiled at the slim searcher and wenfi>aek to the end of the car. The slim man sht down, and a,jpleasant-faced passenger next to Idm giggled. “By George! you’re as absontminded as I am. lie said. “Absentminded nothing!” answered the retired searcher. “I found that I had come away from the office without a penny. It took me a minute or two to lick the date off that veteran transfer.”

Strange Flag Excites the People of Pittsburgh PITTSBURGH. —A flag of strange markings was hoisted on the flagstaff atopthe Union Storage company’s building, at Liberty and First avenues, the other day. It was marked with perpendicular red and white stripes, and ia

one corner was a white field with a blue eagle almost filling it. Five minutes after the flag was put up all the telephones in the storage company’s offices began to tingle and voices—some querulous, some angry and some obviously awed by the foolhardiness of the thing—inquired what had tempted the company to put lip a German flag. In five more minutes an auto bearing two detectives pulled up before the office and dash-

ing in, they voiced like question. To ■ all the*saine answer was made: “The flag was put up by the Lnited State® government.” That was the only satisfaction given the telephonic inquiries, but the detectives were directed to the United States custom appraisers office In one corner of the building. Attaches of the custom office had also been subjected to much telephonic questioning within a few minutes after the flag went up, and when the detectives arrived, were scurrying about in search of an atlas with which to fortify their position. They explained to the detectives that, the (lag-was a United States revenue ensign and must be hoisted over every revenue office. The detectives went away satisfied,dmt a Liberty avenue business man. who later entered the appraiser’s office, was much more insistent in his contention that it was a German flag and not a revenue ensign.—His eloquence was so convincing that the government men renewed their search for the atlas whit*, they were certain, contains a picture of the flag. Failing to find it, they assured the business man that they would send at once to Washington for a picture of the flag and its Classification.

Adventure of Otto Schafer and His “Tiger Baby” NEW YORK. —Otto Schafer, who when not indulging in an outing such as ho had the other day, is employed as a machinist, is probably convinced that this is a bad season to -combine a black bag and a dialect. He alarmed hun-

dreds of persons in Fourth avenue and finally was arrested for a far less important crime than those who encountered him had expected. At Twenty-ninth street Schafer approached John Harbin, an accountant. He asked for a match. Mr. Harbin supplied it and the incident seemed closed until Schafer staggered around in a circle, pointed to a black bug he was carrying, and said: “If you knowed what iss inside here you vould run like anything.”

All things considered, Mr. Harbin thought it quite likely. He crossed, the street and,followed the course of the lurching Schafer up Fourth avenue, Imping to encounter a policeman. Schafer, in the meantime, stopped several persons to inform them that within the black bag which was ajar at one end was something which might well make anyone’s hair stand on end. Persons began to paint at him, and finally a throng of nearly 200 persons followed at a good distance. * , „ At Thirty-first street Policeman Curry strolled into Fourth avenue, and excited per«»”« who had run ahead of the bng carrier told the policeman all about It. The dizzy Schafer was halted, the bag carefully opened and there within it was seen a little kitten. “Huh,” said she policeman, “it’s only a kitten.” “Kitten!” exclaimed grasping the hag and staring into it intently. “A man gived me dot und said it voss a tiger baby.” Grief and disappointment combined to take away Schafer’s sense of direction..and he was taken, kitten,, bag and all, to the East Thirty-fifth street station.

Women Are Making Munitions of War ia Bridgeport^ BRIDGEPORT, CONN. —As the Merchants’ limited from Boston crashes t> through Bridgeport on its way to New York about nine o’clock every evening passengers invariably glance up in curiosity at the great blocks of lighted

factory windows which suddenly loom up out of the night. “Those are the munition factories,” some well-trav-eled person remarks, as one after another the* great buildings slip by. Behind those lighted windows men and women are working ail night long making cartridges to- be , shipped abroad by the Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge company, and half a mile away, in a still larger factory adjoining the first and under the same management, thousands more are mak-

ing rtfies for the battlefields of Europe, New workers, recruited in part from nearby towns, from industrial cities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; from Canadian farms, but mainly from the, city of Bridgeport itself, many of them untrained and inexperienced in this occupation, have gathered in the great munition factories to share in the war work and in the war prosperity. By the summer of 1916 nearly 4,000 women and muny more men were employed. Even small explosions make the new' girls very nervous, but familiarity with danger so»n permits experienced workers to pay little attention to it. A kind of fataHsm possesses some of them. ‘We have only once to die,” said a worker who had seen men seriously Injured and had herself been prostrated* by the force of an explosion, “and it might as ifttbe in the shops as anywhere else.” „ yC-