Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-01
HORSES TOO SLOW
To Suit Modern Ideas of Travel, and They
Must Go TO the Rear.

To Suit Modern Ideas of Travel, and They
Must Go to the Rear.
A rapid transit boom has struck Pitts
burg with unprecedented violence, and
threatens to seize upon every street in the
city-nay, more, SO great is the number of
schemes that have been chartered, projected
and talked about in a less definite way that
there is a dearth of streets to accommodate
them all, and it is seriously contem plated to
open up a number of new ones to supply the
demand.
Rapid transit is all right, but there is
danger of OVERRIDING it, to say nothing of in
conveniencing the public by establishing
lines where they are not necessary and
would be in the way of Improvement. This
superabundance of good thing might, in
some cases, cost more than it amounted to.
The ambition to be identified with rapid transit
is altogether praiseworthy, but the money end
of the business should not be overlooked. As
too many cooks spoil the broth, so too much of
rapid transit might epdanger dividends and in
volve financial trouble. True enough, the city
is growing and travel increasing, but scarcely
in ratio corresponding to the number of
projects for handling 1t. With rapid transit
on every street and some of the alleys, as pro-
posed. it seems doubtful If there will be
enough patronage for all, in which case the
weakest would go to the wall. Thus money
would be needlcssly wasted, and possibly good
intentions nipped in the bud.
But, on the other hand, some good might
come of thus crowding the market by assisting
to open up thinly settled districts and by re-
ducing fares to a very low point, which would
not be an unmIxed evil, and the people could
stand it if the companies could, but it might
be hard on those who furnished the cash to
make low fares possible.
The boom will probably run fits course, what
ever that may be, with OF without opposition,
but, in the meantime. measures should be taken
to reserve few of the streets-such as Forbes
and Diamond, in Pittsburg, and Ridge avenue,
Allegheny, SO as to have unrestricted access to
the rural regions, and where pedestrians could
promenade and horsemen exhibit the PAGES of
their flyers with none to molsst or make them
afraid.
The business feature of the week was a sur
prising panic in oil on Monday, which sent the
price up from S3sk to 81 03 in about Is minutes,
from which it as quickly dropped ten points,
saving the shorts from disaster, and the
adoption of the plan for trading in futures.
The market closed steady. Stocks were gen.
orally weak and neglected, the total sales being
5,954 shares. Real estate opened dull, but i'm
proved later on and closed fairly active. The
number of deeds recorded were 2l9, represent
ing s3sl, ,43l.
The number of building permits issued was
Al, and the estimated value sl0l, ,270. The
largest 81. .00O was for Father Sheedy's school
house. Business in mortgages was rather
below the average both in number and amount;
l7s of value of gil, were placed on record,
the largest being for $4,000. Iron was un-
changed but frmer Jobbers did a larger bust
ness in seasonable goods The week closed
with good prospects and a buoyant feeling all
round.
The Americans are the most feverish and
restless set of people in the world. The secret
of this is to be found in the fear that some
other firm arount the corner, or across the
water, or on the other side Of the globe will
find some better way of doing what we are
doing. The dealer watches the shipments of
goods from his neighbor's store. The manu-
facturer watches the processes employed by his
neighbor and so it goes all through the list
While this is all right. the objective point of all
this anxiety and worry is to exceed.
While this may be all correct, it leads to un-