Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-30

ed raj, gay official underling twicela day
t2r his insolence or merchandising
spirit bnt he rides all the same and pays his
money. because he can save
time. An underground railway is
now in process of construction up Broad
way, and this will give uptown another
boom and may lead to a little decency on
the part of Cyrus Fields elevated SER
wants.
vANDERB1LT's SIX CENTS sspuBL1o BE
DID,
In spite of all this the surface roads
seem to do as prosperous business as
ever. The cars are as numerous as ever
and all are crowded. Vanderbilt, whose
platform is, sthe public be ID" owns
the Fourth Avenue line and charges six
cents fare. Every other surface line in
the city carries for five cents, but this
public be do hundred million fellow
hang. on to the extra copper, and is in
turn heartily damned by everybody.
He can't begin to damn the public as much
as the public damn him.
To make sure of raking in his extra cop
per all the time, the Vanderbilt line has
discarded the bell register, which was wont
to hang about the neck of each conductor.
The conductor was supposed to pull little
spring and ring the bell and register the
fare at the same time, every time he made
collection from passenger, but it was
discovered that the lily paid conductors
carried little bell in the palm of their
hands and would ring that when the cars
were crowded, and s'knock down" the fare.
The new device is sort of clock in one
end'u OFT the Car with dial about
wooden clock, and big steel
pointer a foot long. The conductor
either pulls a rope or turns an iron rod
with wrench, connected with this dial.
and the pointer turns with loud ring of
the bell. When Mr.. Vanderbilt's 'public
be d IA" six cent cars reach Forty Sec
ond street, fellow rushes on board at
the farther end from where the dial is lc-
Gated, jams through the passengers, steps
on all the corns and bpnions he can find,
plants himself in front of the internal
machine, spreads his elbows to hit the
| standing passengers in the ribs, pulls out
| a tablet and records the number of fares
| the pointer indicates. Then he unlocks the
machine, turns the pointer back to neught,
| locks it up, writes down
| the number of the car and conductor,
| and retreats the whole length of the car as
he came, though there is door alongside
of the automatic machine. Passengers
who have not gotten out and walked to
their destination, rather than await this
performance, are then carried along, and
the conductor wonders how his account
will tally at night with the books kept by
the near sighted chap who
tramps on the passengers, and
winds up the machine. Most of the lines
running up and down town have. similar.
device, but found some of the cars on the
Bowery using the old bell register hanging
on the conductors neck. The Bowery is
evidently regarded as moral part of the
| city. ..
The cross town roads, as they are called,
running from the East to the North river
| on the cross streets from Twenty third
down, viz: Eighteenth, Fourteenth, etc.,
are mostly of the bob-tailed order, without
| conductors, like those in St. Paul. rather
| admire the drivers on these cross town
| cars. They seem to understand that their
business is to drive, and as they are not en-
trusted with the fares and have no Internal
public be id" machine to register the
n1ckels, they simply attend to the driving
business and ringing the bell for trucks or
carts to clear the track. They don't worry
whether passenger pays his fare or not,
| but drive from ferry to ferry with COM
mendable diligence. They seem to have
| just about the same care for the interests
of their employers that their employers
| have for the interests of the
public. 1t is very good illus
tration of like master like man, and
1 am not the least surprised. The bulk of
the people in New York are looking out
for opportunities of getting the better of
some one. This is so well understood that
| they chain their door mats down in the
private residences to keep the lower strata
of society from emulating the millionaires,
on small scale, and carrying them off.
HIGH LIFE ABOVE STAIRS.
To see high life in New York Il mean
| high life o 1t of doors) you want to drive
| up and down Fifth and Madison avenues
and through Central park on "a pleasant
Saturday afternoon. You can hire fellow
with plug hat and long coat dang
ling g. at his heels, with tin
buttons about the size of a restaurant
butter dish, to drive you about for two
dollars an hour, and thus mingle with the
"aristocracy," so-called, even though you
may resemble 'Flora McFlimsy, of Madi-
son Square,who, bedecked and bedizzened,
had nothing to wear" I am free to con-
TESS that I have very poor opinion
of this out door, menagerie aristocracy,
and I, feel an utter Indifference as to
whether this opinion is reciprocated, but
trust it is, if any opinion is entertained at
talkt;'The snobbish displays one sees on
lsuch "a drive are not calculated to elevate
| one'sopinion of the boosted American re-