New York City was lifted out of cultural isolation yesterday as 10,000 copies of the CRIMSON were distributed to relieve the strain of the six-day-old newspaper strike.

By airplane and auto, eight Crimeds sped to the Metropolis early yesterday morning to give away yesterday's "New York Edition" at Penn Station, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and other centers of the city. New Yorkers were so starved for news they grabbed 4,000 copies in less than 20 minutes.

The format of yesterday's paper was changed to resemble that of the New York Times, with one-column headlines and editorials in small type. When they stopped at the Times Building to deliver a copy to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Times publisher, a group of pickets boohed the newspaper-carrying editors.

No Walking for Truman

While in New York, the editors also presented a copy to former President Harry S. Truman in his suite at the Waldorf Towers. Until then, Truman had been forced to read his news from an Associated Press ticker five blocks away.

When copies were brought to the Yale Club, the guard thought it a gag and refused to give them out. But residents of the Harvard Club eagerly gobbled up copies. Crimeds also placed copies at other crucial points around the city.

Between appearances on the local New York networks to announce the coming of the paper, the editors spend most of yesterday out on the streets, giving away the issue.

Usually skeptical New Yorkers, now unaccustomed to seeing any news journals, were at first hesitant to accept the proffered papers. But once the ice was broken, they swarmed over the Crimeds. "They are collectors' items," said one man. Said another, "New Yorkers will take anything if it doesn't cost them anything."