CHAPTEE II

BROADWAY

The Main Street in Our Village

Of ALL the streets which are dear to New Yorkers
we may without fear of protest place Broadway at
the head. With all its faults, with its miles of
plank roads (at present), its generally overcrowded
condition and its intolerable hustle and bustle, there
is something about our main thoroughfare that
makes us calmly tolerant of its shortcomings.
Every once in a while some stranger comes to town
and calls it an architectural monstrosity—and we
give his remarks large space in the papers. Then
we go to the theatre and George Cohan says, "Give
my regards to old Broadway," and we applaud like
demons. Then another man who has just skidded
over the wet boards alongside a Catskill water open-
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