Page:The New Yorker 0002, 1925-02-28.pdf/16

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14
THE NEW YORKER


AND THEY D° SAY

ON to-heart talk on the settee in the hall—just two girls ton in his "Kid Boots", Jobyna Howland, who together who had not been precisely bosom friends has been a part of that entertainment since shortly during the long run of "The Gold Diggers”, but who after the days when the Bronx was down in Union had come together at last in a common resentment of Square, wrenched herself loose from the troupe and its producer. They were burying the hatchet in Mr. booked passage for Europe. The altercations between Belasco's neck. And they were having a real good herself and Mr. Cantor had kept Forty-second Street time until Morris Gest, who had been prowling un- nervous for weeks, apprehending assault and battery easily on the periphery of this chat, fell upon them and possibly mayhem. Miss Howland had resigned like a typhoon. haughtily almost every Saturday, to be soothed each For, among the emotions which that impresario time with roses from Mr. Ziegfeld. Finally one of really does feel is a true hero worship for his father- her resignations took and Ada Lewis leaped into the in-law and, in blistering language, he told Miss How- breeches. land what he thought of her, how low was his esti- mate of her both as an artiste and as a lady, how un- worthy he considered her even to black the boots of The legends surrounding this actress, who has the Wizardry. It was a magnificent philippic and when figure of Juno and the voice of Jove, are accumu- lating so fast that a book about her seems inevitable. effectively from a house so polluted. But here diffi- he had reached its peroration, Gest turned to sweep That book will have to include the item of her recent culty cropped up. He could not find his hal-his revenge on Laurette Taylor. At a party the two sat famous, black velour hat which has saluted so many within reach and Miss Howland took it into her head critics in its time. He was ready for his great exit but that Miss Taylor was ignoring her. She smouldered the effect was destroyed by the necessity of searching for a time and then, with a most heavenly smile, leaned forward, bowed, caught Miss Taylor girl- the apartment first. That search, in which every one joined with dis- ishly by the hand, and murmured: "Miss Chatterton, maying heartiness, proved fruitless until some one de- duced, by a Sherlockian process of elimination, that there was only one place where the hat could be. That And then there is the story of her spoiling Morris deduction led embarrassingly to the person of Miss Gest's exit. It was at another party, where Miss Howland who was, all unconsciously, sitting firmly Howland and Ina Claire were having a good heart- upon the missing headpiece.--Dr. Winkle is it not?” THE HOUR GLASS The Unscaleable Craig Militancy's Daughter That gentleman whom Mayor A strain of militancy runs through Hylan occasionally calls, for mo- her family. Emmeline Pankhurst mentary want of cpithet, "Mr. achieved greatness in her time by her Comptroller," has a face and a bald, ardor for the cause of woman suf- polished head which gleam like a frage. (It would be interesting to Charles L. boiled lobster. He has, also, at times know whether she exercises her vote Christabel Craig the unamiable disposition of that Pankhurst to-day.) For Christabel, the road to crustacean, Fame has not been paved with loose Charles L. Craig is no Lionel-Strongheart or stones suitable for heaving at convenient Government Barrymore--in form. Squatted cross-legged and suit- officials, or buildings. She has had to make her bid as ably robed--one hesitates at the implied indignity. a revivalist, and militant religion enlists no followers he could lead a semi-religious cult. nowadays among the first families anywhere, The man suffers the one great handicap to a politi- Only one generation in the Pankhurst line separates cal career: He has been known to think on small pro- a demonstration in the Strangers' Galleries of Parlia- vocation. He commands even the respect of his sub- ment from the much-thumped pulpit usually occupied ordinates; when one remembers that these are all city by the Rev. John Roach Straton, but now given over employees, the marvel is great. Whatever plan finally to Christabel's contralto denunciations of the world, is adopted out of the many offered in the present or her soprano prophecies of its doom. transit donnybrook, assuredly it will be found that She is a mild enough person in repose—as most Mr. Craig's does not agree with Mr. Hylan's. This English women are. She dresses with Victorian mod- is his greatest work. esty, without its pomp. She smiles from eyes whose Once speaking to a genial aide, Mr. Craig re- color is hard to determine; perhaps they are grey. marked, "Nobody with my brains ever can be presi- She looks anything but what she is a crusader in dent; anybody with your disposition is sure to be." an age of taxicabs. Digitized by 1