Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-22
BROADWAY'S RAILWAY.
WOMEN WHO RIDE IN STAGES
TO FOOL THE WORLD.


Novel Way of Posting Birds OF Fash
Ion on New Books.
NEW YORK, March 19.-The fact that
Broadway from Union Square 20 the Bat
terry, despite the opposition the innova-
ton has encountered, IS at last to be sur
rendered to the tender mercies of
a soulless horse railway corpora
ton, shows how inadequate are the
present facilities for transit in this
great clay. Were not the necessity
great, the noble thOrOaghfare would never
become she victim of Jacob Sharp & Co.
Perhaps the remedy would-be worse than
the disease did not the stages cease to run
when the railway begins running. The
cumbersome vehicles are so slow that
they are by no means convenient mode
of lOcomotiOn, while they take up so much
room that their radiance has long been de-
sirable.
When the Fifth avenue stages stop run
ming, however, q certain class of people
principally women, will be left without
means OF gratifying a species of ridiculous
petty pride. 1t is an actual fact that no
end of women will go out of their way to
ride IN Fifth avenue stage in order to
make it appear that they live in or near
Fifth avenue! Such will certainly regret
the stoppage of that line of stages.
One has but to ride in any of the horse
cars at the close of business hours, or on
the elevated railways during the commits
sion hours, as the period when the fare is
but cents is termed, to learn how made
quate New YOrk's transit facilities are.
Standing room only can ordinarily be OBJ
tanned in either horse car or |'L'' train if
one does not board them at their starting
point, and on rainy and stormy days the
struggle to getsup town is a veritable
struggle for existence. Between 5 and 7
p. m. the elevated trains, especially those
of the Third avenue line, run with
human beings packed like sardines,
not only in the ears but on
the platforms. The brakemen can
hardly open, the gates on arriving at a
station because of the presence of the
crowd, and trains continually run bv sta
| tions because they are so full that no
more can enter. When one has seen sew
eral trains thus pass by without taking
him on board he is apt to consider rapid
transit in New York a delusion and a
snare. Indeed, for travelling short dis
tances, such as a mile, or even a mile and
half, the horse cars at all times are
preferable to the elevated railway cars.
So little time is saved by taking the latter
that it does not pay for the trouble of
walking two or three blocks, more or less,
to the station and ascending the steep
stairs of the same.
But few years more, evidently, and it
will be absolutely necessary to provide
some additional means of really rapid
transit. An underground railway with
four tracks, two for through trains, must
be built. or, If this would be impractical
bic, halfway arrangement in the shane
of a shallow open tunnel, with bridges at
the street crossings, such as that through
which the trains entering the FOrty-sec-
ond street station run, in spots, will have
to oe constructed.
LARGE DIVIDENDS FOR THE ELEVATED
RAILWAYS.
AS may be readily imagined, the ele-
waited railways, with all the travel there
is upon them, are making comparatively
large dividends on thir stock, largely
watered as it is. In addition to their re-
ceipts for fares, they receive large
amounts for advertising. The panels in
the cars are utilized for this purpose, and
the walls of the stations are let out TO the
highest bidder. Their expenses, how
ever, are large, and the wear and tear of
the tracks and the running gear is i'm
mense. The cost of stopping train at
station, for example, is estimated at 81
CCuJos lul5 10 uuG W Luc wear CAUSED DIV
the frictiOns when the grip of the brake
bites the wheels. AS there are from % to
30 stations between the Battery and Har-
lem, the cost of running train that dis
lance is therefore necessarily consider.
able.
Then the ''L'' is robbed by it's employees
on a wholesale scale. Counterfeit tickets,
so well cOntrived as TO be almost impos.
sible OF detection, are constantly being
air of aE hwy in bO oF
company who thus far have avoided the
fate of the cOunterfeiters who were cap
tured by the police year or more ago.
The number of counterfeit tickets taken
in daily is said to be several thousand
Whenever, too, some one buys tickets for
a large party, a strip OF tickets is given
him which is too large to fall into the
ticket receptacle, and the guardian of the
receptacle takes possession Of them, and
giving them to the agent to sell over again,
divides the profits with him. This is said
to occur often. While all this shows the
employees to be in a state of great de-
mOralizatiOn, they are so poorly paid that
they are almost justified in adding to their
wages by what means they can.
The sL's," too, are said to be mulcted
by the general public in q way that, if
reprehensible, is also ludicrous. 1t is
known that they will pay largely to pre-
brought into court, and this fact is taken
advantage of in this way: A man will try
to board tram after the gate has closed,
and when the brakeman resists his at
tempt to push it open, he calls him an OPP
prObious epithet. The brakeman generally
resents the bad language by striking the
utterer. The latter takes means to secure
the Identification of his assailant, and
goes before the superintendent with his
complaint of assault and battery. Rather
than have it known that one of their en-
plOyes struck passenger with or with
out cause, the CPS" will pay a larger or
smaller amount to stop the compliments
mouth. AS high as $500 is said to have
been paid in one case when the entire
matter was from beginning to end put
up job, so to speak, carried out in ac-
cOrdance with the above programme. The
"Ls," like the horse railways, employ
''spOtters" to detect the dishonesty of the
employees, but, like the average police
detective, they detect little.
THE CASE OF KATE sANBoRN AND
GORDON W. BURNHAM
illustrates that there is many a slip
between the cup and the lip. Had he
lived three or four days longer, as his
wife she would have been entitled to a
third part of his estate. The $150,000
which he is said to have left her is not
quarter OF which she would have received
in that event. In their account of Miss
Sanborn, in connection with MIR. Burn
ham, the local newspapers have omitted
to mention one of her most notable per-
fOrmances. She is a sort of literary
McAdam, and has devised royal road to
learning. AT one time she supported
herself and earned good income, too, by
making a synopsis Of some popular book
of the period, and selecting its most
characteristic passages. She would then
read her synopsis and selections to
rOomtul of fashionable women
too occupied or too lazy to read
the book for themselves, and in the
course of an hour she would give them
such a good idea of its contents that they
would be able to converse intelligently
about the book. In this way she kept her
patronesses primed in current literature
with but little trouble to themselves, and
great profit to her.
There is a cruel story told of Miss San
ford, which shows that she really is as SUI
perfcial as the leaning she inculcated by
the above process. She actually asked
somebody once, who was the husband of
Marie Antoinette? 1t is certainly I'M
pardOnable in professional historian and
Iiterateur to be ignorant of the name of
the unfortunate Louis XVI. Mr.. Burn
ham was SO. One newspaper called at
tention to the coincidence that his fan
GEES age reversed these figures, she being
for tho oniuaidnnaa ho iot