Judge — November 8, 1930 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Subway Art Situation pe just emerged from a brown- stone house on 48th street when a gentleman stopped me. He wanted a quarter. “Why,” I asked, “do you need a quarter?” “It’s a long story,” he replied. “Are you acquainted with the August Bleeker case?” I wasn’t. “Won't you sit down?” invited the man. We seated ourselves on the curb. “O» the night of October 30th, 1900,” he began, “little August Blecker, aged 8, of 21 Murgatroyd Place, took a piece of his mother’s soap and inscribed ‘Old man Glotz is acrazy bum’ on Mrs. Glotz’s window, it being Hallowe’en. “Mr. Glotz, a grouchy old fellow, complained to the young chap’s father, who forced August to rub off the in- sulting statement and rewrite ‘Mr. Glotz is a crazy bum’ a_ hundred times.” “Serves the little tyke right,” I ven- tured. “Ah!” he sighed, “you are just an- other American. Don’t you realize that the creative genius of young Bleeker was stifled, perhaps forever?” “Are you August Bleeker?” I asked. “No,” he answered, “I am Herman J. Wankle, the man who pencilled the mustache on Maude Adams in 1908.” Brive—Heavy, heavy hangs over your head—guess what? “Sandy MacTavish, will you pull down your skir-r-rt!” Hussy—Another one of your angel-food cakes! “Twenty years ago I was the toast . of the subway system,” continued Wankle. “Every station was pleading for my work. I even had calls to Brooklyn and the Bronx. Ah, happy days, days of reckless, carefree aban- don. Even now,” he added proudly, “there are a few original Wankles up in the 72nd street station.” “My Uncle Otto on my mother’s side,” I said, “was a Wankle man. I'll never forget the gathering he had at the unveiling of your ‘Smith Brothers with Horn-Rimmed Glasses.’ If you will permit my saying so, Mr. Wankle, that had everything.” The great man sighed. “It was nothing,” he said, simply. “You must be a very happy man,” I suggested. “Happy?” he scoffed. “In those (Continued on page 31)