The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-11-10

"h"t care that am broke to-day,
And have not the cash to pay the wsy'
Never mind, just you roll.
Roll on, thou car! Roll on.
, Roll with electric speed
By the mansion Of rich and howell Of poor,
By the beer saloon and the factory door.
That's right, keep rolling
r Roll onward! Onward, roll!
, Thou last car at night
, What matters il home is mile away.
, And our top coats at our uncles stay.
Just you roll
The song Of the car as it glides over pol,
ished tracks will b. pleasant music to Ottawa
for she will soon be blessed with cheap
transportation and the boon of short dis,
tances. for what is distance but timer
The poles and wires of the Ottawa Electric
Street Railway arrived a couple of days ago
and the contract for the laying of the tracks
being let, work on the tracks and wire
stringing will be commenced at once.
The line running from the Rock Island
depot TO Main, thence west to Clay, thence
to Illinois avenue, thence to Elm and to OF
tawa Avenue, win be the first constructed,
being counted the more profitable. Ground
will be broken IN few days, and by Xmas
the road will begin operations.
The stumbling blocs in the way of the
road has been the inability of the manu-
facturers of electrical apparatus to fill orders,
and as the company is given assurances that
it will receive its apparatus in time to place
1t IN as soon as the tracks are laid, the diff.
! tculty is now removed.
AS little has been said upon the subject
since July, the general public, taken up as
1t has been with political subjects, has
neither spoken of it or thought much about
the matter. The road is to be single track,
with switches and turnouts at stated places
along the line, laid with fat rails. The
motive power is to be electricity, with
current Of about four hundred fifty volts,
supplied by a three.sixteenths inch wire,
strung along in the center of the street. The
speed Of the car will be from seven to eight
miles per hour in the city and perhaps q
little more rapidly in the suburbs. This is
about cable car time. The cars themselves
will be double enders, ie, having q door
and platform at each end. They will be
fourteen feet in length, inside measurement,
and capable Of seating twenty-five persons.
They will be of the latest style, and up
holstered in first class shape. The rail
alone will show above the surface of the
street, the ties being buried, and will weigh
twenty five pounds to the yard, or somewhat
less than half the weight Of railroad rails.
The poles. one hundred feet apart, and
placed just inside the curb, will be twenty
feet high, and the wire which is to sustain
the electrical wire will be stretched across
the street from pole to pole The electrical
wire will be so arranged that wheel,
fastened at the end of pole, the latter
arising from the roof of the car at an angie
of forty five degrees, will run along upon it,
thus communicating the power to the ma
cbinery of the car. The machinery will be
underneath the car, and the levers so ar,
ranged as to allow the conductor to stop the
car at will. The service, according to the
ordinance will be one Of five minutes, and q
cor running at the speed mentioned, will
thus be enabled to turn the first line, two
miles in length, every thirty minutes, re.
quiring six or seven cars for the Columbus.
Main st. line. The La Sale, State and Glass
Factory line, about three miles in length.
will require about nine cars, and the east
side road, about mile in length, four cars,
so that the total number of cars in use,
when the road is completed, will be not less
than twenty on the six miles of road.
The subject nearest the hearts Of the peo'
pie, because nearest their pockets, is the
matter Of fares. The fares will, in COMPARE
son with those of other smaller cities, be
very reasonable. The transient rate is fixed
at FIVE cents, and twenty five Communication
tickets will be sold for one dollar, the same
as in Chicago. The school children are es>
pecially favored, tickets being placed at the
remarkably low rate Of fifty for one dollar,
veritable boon to anxious mothers in rainy
or cold weather.
There will not, as many have supposed, be
any attempt made on the part Of the railway
people to place electric lights upon their
poles, but it may be possible that they could
be induced to do so if a sufficiently large
offer was made them by the city council.
The company is not charitable institution.
The promoter and president of the road,
Mr.. Evans, of Council Bluffs, Ia, has just
finished building the great bridge over the
Missouri river between Council Bluffs and
Omaha, and has placed thereon, as q means
of rapid transit, an electric railway, similar
in style to the one about to be placed in
operation here. 1t 10 grand enterprise
and has proven to be q grand success. He