New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-13
RIDING IN THE STREET CARS.

Not many years have elapsed since ON
nibuses were unknown, even in our larg-
est cities. They have come and gone;
have had their day and departed; sue
ceeded by the street railroad, branching
through every part of the city, affording
a luxury within the means of the poorest
and the humblest. This benefit of cheap
personal transportation, so utterly un-
known few years ago, is now shared by
all classes of society, and so universally
that, were it to be suddenly withdrawn,
a lamentation might arise not excelled by
the gr oanings of the children of Israel
under the burdens of Pharaoh's task-mas-
tiers. We have already become so used to
the street car that it seems as if we al
ways had it.
For long distances, or for short ones, all
avail themselves of the street cars; and
hence riding in the cars has become an
art-a very pleasant one-just as horse
manship has been an art time out of
oneself as comfortable as possible, with
out making others uncomfortable This
was not so at first, for then in the cars
might be found human specimens of the
genus Sus, having the manners of low
barroom, caring for none but themselves,
arranging their persons to take up two
seats instead of one, leaving others to
stand; obivious of the convenience of
ladies remote from the front of the vehi-
Gle, allowing them to stagger the length
of the car to deposit their fare.
1t is gratifying to observe how all this
is improved, how the social necessity of
the street car has begotten a spirit of
courtesy never before existing to any ex-
tent between different classes in the COM
munity. 1t is pleasant to see how well
dressed ladies and gentlemen make room
for the humbly clad; how the good look
ing dandifed young fellow hands up the
fare of the old colored aunty; in fact, the
street car seems to be that one place be-
sides the grave where the rich and the
poor meet together in perfect equality.
The street car seems, too, to be a
species of school for the young in the
art of good manners. 1t gives them OPP
portunities, which otherwise they might
not have, of performing little acts of
politeness; of pulling the stop cord when
they see some one at distance trying to
overtake the car, opening the door for
some one to enter, yielding a seat to an
aged or infrm person, and other little
matters of kindness which, as every one
knows who has tried them, make the
doer feel SO pleasant. i
The street car, moreover, is a true
school of democracy, in its national mot
its party sense. At church or market, in
places of trade or of amusement, people
of all degrees of wealth and poverty meet
together-together, yet apart for at
none of these places are courtesies ex-
changed, and the individual of humble
belongings would not attempt to offer an
attention to one in a different social posi-
ton. 1t is only in the street car that
there is the least approach to recognition,
and this is, to great extent, necessity
certainly ID is convenience 1t can not
be otherwise, as a consequence, than that
humiliating distinctions will disappear,
slowly, it is true, but surely, and those
who have attained to opulence and dis
tinction will at length appreciate the fact
that their poorer fellow-citizens are not
so much beneath them after all.