FIGHTING HEAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9189, 8 September 1908, Page 3

FIGHTING HEAT.

A New York resident, writing in -the "Daily Mail," gives a picturesque account of the way in which New York takes a heat wave. It is interesting to note the difference between the behaviour of New York people at such a time and that of Christchurch people in a summer nor'-wester. Everybody in New York ••wants iceJ drinHs. In the matter of -diet —exceDt that the consumption of ice.l stuff seems calculated to impair tha digestion—and clothing. New Yorkers seem to be more sensible than people in this p:irt of the world. "There is little meat eaten in the down-town restaurants of New York these days. Strawberries and cream are the staple luncheon diet, lemonade or ginger ale, with a chunk of ice irjit, the prevailing drink. Being afraid to go out in the sun. the New York business man will often tela-) phons for luncheons of this sort to be ' brought to his office, himself paying ' for strawberries and lemonade for all his employees." Half the women in the street are hatless, and those in offices do not hesitate to remove the . irritating collar hikJ replace it with •a handkerchief. Charity to the poor j takes the form of the distribution of free ice. Vehicles go along mean streets every few minutes, carrying ice to all who ask for it, and dirty little children scramble for the bits that fall from them. So soon as the evening meal is over, thousands of New Yorkers make for the tram-cars 5 and ride in them until the early hours •of the morning. For twopence-half-penny, one can ride for milss. Every now and then the conductors pull up of their own accord at a drinking fountain, and drink of the free :ice-water, while the passengers visit the nearest ice-cream shop. Cheap ice and cheap travel are the great blessings during a New York heat wave. Ice-cream, of a remark- • ablj good quality, sells at Is 3d a quart. This is the New York that works. All who need not work, the ■drones and the families of the City men, are at the seaside., In some grand houses at night time tae master goes in by the area gate, and cresps to bed in a back room, stumbling over burglar alarms along the route upstairs. He takes his meals "down town" at his club, or at "restaurants. Even the shopman and clerks live alone, for it is the cus:An for wives in moat moderate and in poor circumstances, to leave town in the hot weather, and leave the husbands and fathers to work on in the heat, and shift fjr themselves as be3t they can.