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

ed railway official underling twiceIa day
for his insolence or unaccommodating
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 little decency on
the part of Cyrus Fields elevated SER
wants.
vANDERB1Lr's SIX CENTS sspuBL1c BE
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, s'the 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 DID, 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 a 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 littls bell in the palm of their
hands and would ring that when the cars
were crowded, and 'kneok down. the fare.
The new device is sort of clock in one
end of the car with a dial about
the size of the ordinary ''Seth Thomas
| wooden clock, and big steel
pointer a foot long. The conductor
either pulls rope or turns an iron rod
with a wrench, connected with this dial,
and the pointer turns with loud ring of
the bell. When Mr.. VanderbiIt's spublic
be ID" six cent cars reach Forty Sec
ond street, fellow rushes on board at
the farther end from where the dial is To-
Gated, jams through the passengers, steps
on all the corns and bunions 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 unIocks the
machine, turns the pointer back to naught,
locks 1t 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 I 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. I 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
nlckels, 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 NewsYork are looking out
for opportunities of getting the better of
some one. This is so we'll understood that
they chain their door mats down in the
private residences to keep the lower strata
of society from emulating the milionaires,
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 a fellow
with plug hat and long coat dang
ling at his heels, with tin
buttons about the size of 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-
fess that I have very poor opinion
of this out door, menagerie aristocracy,
and feel an utter indifference as to
whether this opinion is reciprocated, but
trust it is, if any opinion is entertained at
all. The snobbish displays one sees on
such drive are not calculated to elevate
ones opinion of the boosted American re-