A Mayor Abroad

Last week Mayor of New York James J. Walker, punctuating his arrivals and departures with pithy comments, continued his European excursion.

In Baden-Baden he invited the

King of Sweden to visit Manhattan, was invited by the King of Sweden to visit Stockholm.

In Munich, on his incognito arrival, he said to reporters: "In the words of the popular American song, 'Please go away and let me sleep.'" Later, on emerging from the Hofbrauhaus (brewery) he remarked: "I am having my first real rest in Germany." On leaving Munich, in a speech to reporters, he stated that "The German people . . . have a great future before them."

Venice was veiled with flags in his honor; people cheered when they spied him on foot or in a boat. Mayor Walker quickly called the gondoliers "wet taxi drivers," the canals, "nature's pavement." On being shown the Doges' Palace, he lighted a cigaret, murmured to Count Pietro Orsi, Podesta of Venice, "Very historical." When he saw the sunset-colored pajamas worn by other guests in his hotel, he reflected, in jocular fashion: "If I dress like everyone else here nobody will know whether I am just getting up or just going to bed. Perhaps I will be able to retrieve my reputation for lateness that has caused me to be known as 'the late Mayor of New York.' " Mayor Walker's youth as well as his genial behavior caused vast astonishment and pleasure to Fascist observers. Said Mayor Walker: "I am something of a Fascist myself."

On the beach at Venice the Mayor, brilliantly attired in white flannels and kaleidescopic sweater, strolled among pajama-clad bathers and loiterers. He would don no beach-pajamas, saying that they reminded him of a familiar dream, that of appearing unclad at some social function. Mrs. Walker wore a yellow, fragile garment, a morning dress. At dinner Mayor Walker's trunk had not arrived; ill-dressed for the first time in his political career, he sauntered into the restaurant at his hotel, clad not in evening clothes but in a lounge suit. Cosmopolites, attracted by the Mayor's complete nonchalance, forgave this defect.