NEW GEISHA GIRLS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1928, Page 4

NEW GEISHA GIRLS.

NEW YORK, July 11. A parallel between Japanese geishas and the “hostesses” of American night clubs and speak-easios (illegal drinking shops) is drawn by the Committee of 14 in their annual report on social conditions in New York. “ 'llie hostess of the night club and the speak-easy is the American coun ter-part of the geisha girl,” says the report. “She is employed for the main purpose of increasing the sales of liquor and food. Her sex appeal largely accounts for her success. Speakeasies and night clubs are now too numerous to succeed from the sale of liquor without the added attraction of hostesses. It is believed that the night club and the speak-easy have been directly responsible for the .marked increase in the volume of vice.” The Committee reports its conviction that modern night clubs in New York have created a situation which is worse than that existing in' pre-Proliibition days. They explain this belief by stating that young men and women are attracted to these clubs by the veneer of respectability which cloaks them, throwing the unsophisticated off their guard. The old-time never catered for these young people. Closed dance halls, where men must purchase tickets for each dance, also come under fire from the Committee as a serious menace to the city’s social welfare. BRIDGE IN THE SKY. NEW YORK, July 12. T - spite of the fact that the temperature had mounted to 92 degrees at Philadelphia yesterday afternoon, four women residents refused to forgo their afternoon bridge. They decided on a game in the air. Hiring a monoplane and ascending

rcvernl thousand feet above the city, t’. cy played eight hands before coming down again. 1 All four were enthusiastic in saying that bridge in the air is far superior I'i the same game played in a stuffy club room or at home: