Wednesday, February 1, 2023

AMONG THE NIGHT BIRDS –

 Coulton Waugh, NY Tribune, Sept 22, 1918 

Leon Trotzky, the Russian foreign minister who is trying his best to perpetuate the Harry Thaw of Potsdam, is well remembered among the night birds at Jack’s restaurant. He used to appear there with Benjamin De Casseres, the poet. De Cessares found Trotzky in “The Gilded Snake,” in West Eighth Street. He introduced him to Frank O’Malley, Tad Dorgan and other Bohemians. Trotzky was like an elephant in a toy store and bucked around proclamating himself. He wore one pin, a Waterbury, and had twelve cents. He is known to have borrowed 8 cents from Jack Francis, a Broadway press agent, to buy a haircut one night in one of the dingy 8 cent hair-cutting places. He drank rum, cursed Wall Street and smoked innumerable foul-smelling Russian cigarettes. This is the man who is now trying to be president of the planet. Washington Herald, Jan 18, 1918