Insouciance Abroad

Last week while the Mayor of Indianapolis went on trial charged with corrupt office-getting; while the Mayor of Chicago roamed the Pacific Coast trying to play a part in national politics; while the Mayor of Los Angeles bestirred himself to defeat a movement for his recall; while this mayor stayed at home and that mayor went to market, the youngest and spriest mayor of them all, James John Walker of New York, brought to a climax in Paris an American legend of Insouciance Abroad.

P: Mayor Walker reached Paris from Rome and flipped off the train in a chocolate crush hat, blue shirt and suit, green and brown tie, beige topcoat and lavender handkerchief dashed with brown and purple.

The frock-coated reception committee, taken aback, dispensed with formalities. They gave Mrs. Walker some flowers, observed her strong white teeth when she smiled, her stylish stoutness when she walked, watched the unusual grinning couple enter a motor. They decided that Mr. Walker meant what he said about his plans being "indefinite." How could such a gamin be definite? They welcomed him as "Mayor of the greatest American capital," but, as he said later: "How in Hell can one be dignified in these surroundings?"

The Mayor's immediate surroundings were the spacious gold-and-red apartments of the Hotel Crillon's prize suite, where President Wilson, General Pershing and the like had lodged before him. With twelve servants at his beck, the Mayor arrayed himself afresh and received newsgatherers. They noted a small rotundity under his natty waistcoat. He admitted his receptions had been bounteous. "If this keeps up much longer," he said, "I shall have to finish my vacation in a hospital. ... I will soon be developed enough around the middle to qualify for an alderman. . . . When I get my feet under my desk at the City Hall, I will give the New Yorkers more service than they ever had before."

P: Leaving Mrs. Walker behind, he dined "stag" with some men who later took him along "The Trail of the Grand Dukes," from cabaret to cabaret in the Montmartre district. In the resort of Josephine Baker, U. S. Negress, his presence was riotously acclaimed.

P: Mrs. Walker was cheered by press stories to the effect that Paris modistes had declared her "one of the best-dressed women ever seen on the Champs Elysees." She promptly announced that all her clothes were made in Manhattan. Paris modistes were not offended, reflecting that Manhattan still depends on Paris for new models.

P: Next day the Mayor arrived, only half an hour late, at the Unknown Solider's Tomb. "I should have preferred," he told General Gouraud, Military Governor of Paris, "to come to Paris incognito to decipher the soul of the city." "You incognito! Impossible!" said General Gouraud.

Mr. Walker told the Anglo-American Press Association that "it was the political reporters of New York who built a 125-pound politician up to be Mayor of New York," and sang champagne-loud songs all afternoon. The toastmaster of the occasion who chided Mr. Walker for being late, was a man with luxuriant red whiskers. Said the Mayor: "All human sins may be condoned . . . but as for whiskers, that's a man's own fault." Then, since the toastmaster had mentioned the Lord Mayor of London, Mayor Walker said, "Sure! What has he to do except to be on time, even if he does dress up like a hero in a Shubert musical comedy and bring along a couple of guys with maces and swords that he never uses?"

He gave Madame Nungesser $900* from New York admirers of her missing son, and kissed her.

He addressed the American Club: "Fellow refugees from the 18th Amendment. ... As the son of an immigrant, who has risen to be Mayor of the greatest city of the Western Continent, I want to say that there is no greater honor than being an American citizen. I have no use for the 100% American at home who is only 1% American when he goes abroad. Some of them hold Government offices. . . . Our country wants to be of serv- ice to the world."

At the official municipal and state reception in l'Hotel de Ville (Paris city hall), Mayor Walker grinned at the formal nude painting and said: "If I had an office decorated like this ... I'd have a hard time keeping my mind on my work."

A stack of mail, most of it in French, necessitated hiring an in- terpreter. "Let me know when you come to mash notes, if any," said the Mayor.

After tea-dancing with a Miss Barbara Blumenthal of Manhattan, he said: "Maybe I will need a job as a 'hoofer' after the next election."

On all occasions anxious to seem irrepressible and appropriate, the Mayor had an Irish story for Marshal Foch, a ready tear for wounded soldiers, a glad hand for U. S. actresses, a snappy salute for American legionnaires, a glib phrase for Paris housing and traffic problems.

P: The mayor announced that the first question Pope Pius XI had asked him last fortnight was: "And how is Johnny Dundee*?" The mayor said he had replied:

"Oh, he's still good but is getting on in years and a bit slow now in the ring." Of the Dempsey-Tunney fight, Mayor Walker said: "Both are my friends. I was born in the same district as Tunney. It was I who taught him his left punch. Well, despite his skill and speed, I think Dempsey will win."

*Last installment of a sum totaling some 900,000 francs.

*Lightweight professional fisticuffer; real name: Joseph Carrora.