The New York herald., 1871-08-31

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In the teeth of our advice last week to the
west side car companies to correct the various
abuses of their management, we are sorry
| to see that the Sixth and Eighth avenue lines
are growing daily more intolerably uncomfort-
able. The Eighth avenue, indeed, rivals the
Third in its wanton disregard Of the conven-
ience Of its passengers and in its pachyder-
matous Indifference to criticism which it
must be conscious it has richly deserved.
The Eighth avenue certainly carries off the
palm from all competitors in the matter OF
brutally discourteous conductors. Some OF
the outrages we have witnessed on this line
have been enough to make the blood Of
humane and civilized man boil with passionate
indignation. In some way it seems as
though women of the poorer sort use this
line more than any other; and especially on
Saturdays there are any quantity Of market
and laundress' baskets brought aboard the
cars. If our ideal of car line were carried
into effect special provision would be made for
| these Smpedinaenta-say on the roof and an
extra charge Of q cent or two exacted. But
no man with heart in his body, sensible as
he may be of the unpleasant features of the
daughters of toll place on the only means Of
conveyance they can afford. Their treatment,
however, by the conductors presents vast
field Of labor for some man willing to
assume towards the human race the
place of Bergh with the dumb creation. We
hov xrit hor
arms full of packages, purposely jerked off
the platform, because she hesitated a moment
before stepping out upon the muddy, slippery
street. Oh, that we had some modern knight
errant to avenge such cold-blooded outrages
some Rodolph with the purse of prince to
pay assault and battery fnes the kind heart
| of saint and the muscles and science Of a
| Morrissey to meddle in our mysteries of New
| York and convert a conductor day to good
manners. We have specially instanced the
conduct Of these brutes to poor women, but
such champion would also redress the
wrongs OF many passenger OF the sterner
sex who has been snubbed, insulted and per-
haps even physically injured and annoyed.
AS to overcrowding, there is little to choose
between the Sixth and the Eighth. A ride on
either line during six out of the twenty-four
hours is to voluntarily cast ones self into q
black hole of Calcutta. Some Ingenious
physician once wrote a treatise on the bad
influence of daily railroad travelling on the
human Frame But what must be the effect
upon the health of a majority of our popula-
ton of half an hours ride twice day in the
vitiated and poisonous air of these over
crowded prisons2 On an Eighth avenue car
one summer Sunday night we once counted
ninety odd passengers The cubic feet of air
and space to each person could easily be COM
puted, and even with the windows open the
press was too great to allow of the atmosphere
speedily renewing itself. But most of
our readers must have frequently
noticed for themselves the enervating effect
Of journey up town under similar
conditions. The poor victim escapes from the
car weak and faint and exhausted, and he
rejoices in the free air of the open street as
though he had been mewed up for weeks in
some unwholesome dungeon. We are sure,
| indeed that if the Board of Health did its
| duty it would prosecute both these car lines
| for not keeping their vehicles in proper
sanitary condition.
Against both these companies we also make
the charge that their cars are habitually and
hideously filthy. Perhaps the Eighth avenue
is the drtiest, and the Sixth most infested
with vermin. In other respects, such as
! speedy running and absence Of detentions, we
/: have but little fault to find. We believe both
lines are sometimes blocked up by wagons,
but that is trouble springing from the mar
| rowness of the streets and not from NAL
| administration. We only blame the companies
for what they can easily avoid, if they would.
| And now, to close, we ask for a reform on
the car lines of the city because we believe
daily familiarity with discomfort and unclean-
| liness does great deal Of harm to us as a
people. Selfshness, dirt and brutality are
more contagious than yellow fever or the
cholera. The overcrowding in tenement
houses has had far worse results morally than
physically; and the overcrowding in our
cars has already converted large par
of our men into selfish and unmanly brutes, at
any rate in one respect. 1t used to be counted
an infamy for an American gentleman to sit
while a lady was standing But now, how
many men persevere in such old-fashioned gal
lantry? Not one in a score, we should Judge
the other nineteen glory in their selfish indif'
ference to the suiferings of the half-faintng
women who hang on by the straps and strive
to conceal the pain which each sharp jerk OF
the vehicle round a corner infcts. Some men,
we know, make the excuse that the lady ac'
cepts the offered seat as a right and not as a
favor. We do not believe this is true; we
have noticed that nineteen women out OF
twenty do say "Thank you, and the twentieth,
if she says nothing, at least looks her graft