New toys are always acceptable whether they are obviously intended for children or ingeniously disguised so as not to offend the dignity of adults, but it has been a long time since New York has had a toy with such infinite possibilities as the traffic tower stations on Fifth Avenue. The way the public has taken up the new game of red, yellow and green lights must assuredly have exceeded the fondest hopes of the inventor. The idea of the thing is quite simple and, what is more, it is thoroughly democratic. Everybody has to play whether he likes it or not. Pedestrians, trucks, automobiles--they must all play the game of the lights.
Occasionally one may forget the rules and start to cross the Avenue at Forty-second Street, but the umpires will be on him at once. Of course, the object of the game is not merely to provide amusement, but to inculcate the spirit of team play throughout Manhattan Island. If we can once get the man in Harlem to realize that he should not want to cross the Avenue at 125th Street until his brother evinces some inclination to do the same thing at Fourteenth Street, a whole lot will have been accomplished. Just at present the game is in its infancy and no really fine players have been developed, but anybody who watches the chauffeur expression when the light turns from green to red and from red to yellow will know that the old fighting spirit of the Argonne is still alive. Every man is out to make his half dozen blocks before the lights are changed, and woe betide the east or west bound car that does not know the rules. As soon as the crowds are thoroughly well drilled one man will operate the lights from the top of the Woolworth Building. By that time we shall have Brooklyn and Hoboken in the game, and a false move in Prospect Park will mean havoc on upper Broadway.