Torchy As A Pa

or a stray hair net, or the plans and specifications for buildin' a spiced layer cake with only two eggs. Anyway, right in

eatin' mouse, or did you grab

I ran across, Torchy." And she

"Well, well!" says I. "At home after September 15, 309 West Hundred and Umpty Umpt

sent them that darling urn-shaped candy j

he was a goner when she went after him so strong.

him back. And, the female being the more expensive of the species, he has trained himself to be girl proof. That's what he lets on to me beforehand, but inside of forty-eight minutes by the watch, or between his first spoonful of tomato soup and his last sip of cafe noir, this Lucy Lee party had him so dizzy in the head he didn't know whether he was gazin' into her lovely eyes or being run down by a truck. Honest, some of the

in' as young Mrs. Blake, livin'

ays Vee. "We must run in and ca

ys I. "A

afe Bretone you've been telling me about," say

er Broadway to Riverside Drive. It's one of the narrow streets, you know, and the scenery is just as cheerful as a section of the Hudson River tube on a foggy night. N

ir in the cells, there'd be an awful howl. But the Rosenheimers and the Max Blums and the Gilottis can run up jerry built blocks with 8x10 bedrooms openin' on narrow airshafts, and livin' rooms where you nee

be very nice, only half a block from the

e of these New Yorkers so patronizin' and haughty when they happen to stray out to way stations and crossroads

a hill, with more than a hundred acres of farm land around it. And Captain Blake must have been used to an outd

ask 'em,"

dare, Torch

e hot comeback to some tenant who has dared to protest that he's had the wrong number, he takes his time findin' out for us whether or not the Blakes are in. Finally he grunts something through

n the door plates, and we was pawin' around, dazed, when

l me which is the Bl

the blonde. "

on the wrong fl

you are!" says she. "We were just picking up a little. You know how th

a three-foot hallway, and discovers Captain Blake just strugglin' into his co

e here, aren't you?" s

we?" says Lucy

y leanin' out one of the front windows, you can almost see the North River; what a cute little dinin' room there

t. Do you know, the sun actually comes in for nearly a

the washtub you could rest a loaf of bread on it. Then there was the dumbwaiter door just beside the ice-box, and overhead a shelf where y

so I am doing my own work; that is, we are. Hamilton is really quite a wonderful cook; aren't you, Hammy, de

ice?" says Ve

lling, but I gathered that most of the thrills had worn off. And along towards the end Lucy Lee admits that she's awfully lonesome. You see, she'd been used to spendin' about six months of the year with D

a few people in town we've met, but somehow we never see them. They live

cquainted with anyone in t

fe is a Mrs. Biggs, I believe. I've spo

r dear!"

ace because there's a funny old waiter that we call by his first name. He tells us about his married daughter, whose husband is a steamfitter and has been out on strike for near

ou have to spend twenty hours out of the twenty-four in a four-and-bath apartment, ain't so allurin', the way she sketches it out. Course, she ain't used to it, for one

anywhere. So we sits around and talks for an hour or so. There ain't room

suppose we make a rinktum

I. "Do you start by joini

e onions. Then you melt up some cheese, add some canned tomatoes, and the re

face. You wouldn't call the young lady a heart-breaker exactly, for her mouth is cut kind of generous and her big eyes are wide set and serious; but you might guess t

r neighbor

r a lot, of course. She spends as much time in her kit

eak to her some t

that twice when I first came, with women I met in the elevator, and I was

's half smiling. I'm going to speak to her." Which she does, right

nant, so she can't be a real New Yorker. Instead she smiles and shows a couple of chee

r and find out?" sa

" puts in Lucy Lee. "I'll

o if-if I may," sa

a Hartley had been a medical missionary and Esther, after she got through at Wellesley, had joined him as a nurse and kindergarten teacher. She'd been living in Kaio Chow for three years and the mission outfit was getting along fine when some kind of a Boxer mess broke out and they all had to leave. Coming back on an Italian steamer from Genoa she met Bill,

who or what you are, so don't come near.' They're like that, yon know. Why, the street gamins of Kaio Chow were not much worse when I first went there. Yes, they did throw stones at me a few times, but in less than a month they were calling me the Doctor Lady and

to work evenings as well, I am alone a great deal. About the only place I can see the sky from and other people is this little kitchen window. So I stay there a lot, and I am sorry to say that often I'm foolish enough to wish myself back at the miss

," says Vee. "You're

e," says Lucy Lee. "I wonde

says I. "That's why the cabarets

t of different ways of passin' the time between 8 p. m. and midnight, nearly every one is so expensive that the avera

-if they only knew where to look and how to get acquainted with each other. Why, right in this block I'

s Vee. "So why should you w

don?" says

gners and get them to give up some of their silly ways and organize them into groups and classes, why c

in' wider, "I never thought of that.

ne side of the street at first. Couldn't you find out how many were intereste

urse. One could get up a sort of questionnaire card and drop it in the letter boxes for each fam

olks from Virginia, that's al

ould show us how many were Southerners, how many from the West, from New

ton Blake. "Better ask 'em if

they liked best: music, dancing, theatre going, bowling, bridge, private theatricals, chess and so on. Plea

ker fiends and the m

by electing ourselves an organizing committee," s

in ten," sa

l we,"

enough to print all the cards we need. And tomorrow evening we will get to

mething new sprung on it. Course, we didn't know how far these two young couples would get towards reformin' New York, but t

from any of them, or seen anything in the papers, we was kind of

w's that block soc

s and associations, from subscription dance clubs to a Lord Dunsany private theatrical club. Everyone in the block who didn't turn out at first has been clamoring to get in since and it has been keeping us busy sorting them out. You've no idea what a difference it makes up here. Why, I know almos

a bulletin to t

t splendid

ng. If it spreads enough, maybe New York'll be