The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-02
Showing the cloven Foot.

| example recently set in Philadelphia and
| draw their cars by steam engines, puts their
opposition to rapid transit in queer light
We call the attention of the rural members
of the Legislature, who have no very good
opportunities for understanding the subter-
fuges of the enemies of rapid transit,
to this significant proof of tho hol-
lowness and insincerity of the affected zeal
of the horse car roads for the quiet
of the streets and the interests of property
holders. OF all possible forms Of employing
steam in the streets none could be SO dan
gerous and annoying rs its use on surface
road. The detection of the horse car COM
panies, which have been making such
parade Of virtuous indignation, in q purpose
to do the very thing they have been de-
nouncing, and to do it in the most objec-
tionable of oil forms, is display Of the
cloven foot which reveals their true charac-
ter. These gentlemen who are intending
to introduce steam on their surface
roads are caught in n predicament resem-
bling that Of the exceedingly proper and
decorous Joseph Surface in Sheridan's witty
comedy In the social circle of which Mr..
Joseph Surface was SO distinguished an or
nament he passed as model OF confluence
whose chaste example and ostentatiously
virtuous conversation disarmed the jealousy
of husbands and insured the security of
wives. He was especially admired by Sir
Peter Teazle, who had married q rural
beauty, but became uneasy when he dis
covered the zest with which she en-
tered into the gayeties Of London life The
one man whom he did not distrust was the
sentimental, the virtuous, the immaculate
Mr.. Joseph Surface. whose bearing toward
the sex was so proper and whose tongue
had been dipped in decorum. But after
that inopportune visit to Mr.. Surfaces
apartments, when it was suspected that
person was secreted behind the screen, and
it was discovered that that person was no
other than Lady Teazle herself, Sir Peter
Teazle, at least, got some new light. 1t was
not afterward possible for him, or for any
other member of that social circle, to listen
with the same admiration to the super
sentimental professions of stainless virtue
made by MIR. Joseph Surface.
Something very similar to this has hap
pened in connection with the public
spirited horse chr companies, which
have manifested such d tender concern for
the interests of property owners. Their
piteous tales of damage and ruin to the
people residing on the streets that are to be
infested with steam transit seem ridiculous
enough now. They are as much discredited
rs was the virtue Of Mr.. Surface
after the discovery Of Lady Teazle
concealed behind the screen in his
room by the company who surprised
him with m unexpected call. Nice people
these surface road companies, to be prating
about the intolerable annoyance of steam
on the streets when they are planning
to use steam themselves Steam, en-
ployed either beneath the surface on an
underground road or above the surface at
sufficient height, as is contemplated by the
elevated roads, would endanger the life of
no person moving in the streets, lead to no
collisions with carts or vehicles and would
cause less annoyance by smoke and noise
than locomotives on the surface. The in
tention Of the horse car companies to
their protested interest in the comfort of
people residing on the avenues. 1t is not
steam that they are fighting but such an
employment of steam as would accommo-
date the public and take away their own
passengers. They have no objection to
steam if they can have the exclusive use of
it. They are willing to put locomotives on
the surface of the streets to butt against and
smash carelessly driven vehicles end knock
the life out of children and foot passengers
but these virtuous guardians of the safety
and quiet of the avenues can tolerate no use
of steam which would enable citizens to
pass from their business to their
homes without needless loss of time
and without paying toll to them. They
are willing to subject jewellers on the
avenues not only to the annoyances which
they have SO noisily denounced, but to the
supcradded and infinitely greater dangers
of steam cars on tho surface. Their
public spirit, like the virtue Of Joseph
Surface, is merely put on as mask. The
mask has fallen ; Lady Teazle has been dis
covered behind the screen the zeal of the
horse car companies for the owners Of pri-
vatc property along their routes will here
after be rated at its proper value We ask
the Legislature to look behind the screen
and behold what will open their eyes as
effectually as those Of Sir Peter Teazle were
opened.
There is some excuse for tho country
members, who have been dupcd by the pro-
LESSONS Of the horse railroad people. In
the first place. they can have no proper con-
ception of how urgent need rapid transit
is to tho welfare, growth and prosperity Of
tho city; and in the next place, the course
of several of the city members is calculated