Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-25
SUBURBAN SORROWS.
Miseries Attending the Dentition of a
New Town on the Ohio.
INADEQUATE RAILWAY SERVICE.
Alleged Inequalities in Taxable Valuations
Exasperate.
ENOUGH OF WOE WITHOUT A CEMETERY

1
Rapid transit is developing the suburbs
of Pittsburg at a rate that two decades ago
would Eave been considered marvellous, but
it is overcoming some people like a summer
cloud. and there are thousands who have
but an imperfect notion of it. Since it has
been decided to build cable railway to the
Southside, the gap between the Twenty
fourth ward and Williamsburg, up the
Monongahela, has been almost closed. Lots
that no one Thought of purchasing six
| months ago are scrambled for, and building
isbeginning on the hillside; all because peo-
| pie can live there and get to their work in q
few minutes when the;line is completed.
But there is one suburb that aspires to
| closer relationship with the center that
has met with more trouble than any other,
and that is Coraopolis. Until 1879 the peo-
| pie in the little hamlet Git was then called
! Middletown) lived in arcadian bliss, star
/ from the madding crowds ignoble strife, +"
thev raised garden stuff and other agri-
cultural products, and sent them by boat or
wagon to this city and lived life of quiet
refinement and ease. Stately steamboats,
! gliding on La Belle Riverre and fussy
locomotives plunging and shrieking
across the river, combined with scenery
| unsurpassed on = Hudson or Rhine,
gave panoramic views unexcelled In any
land or cline. In the evening their loving
mother nature wrapped them in royal pur-
| pie haze that lulled the senses to repose as
peacefully and as efectually as the young
mother does her first born. Disease was
almost unknown, and the even tenor of life
was never disturbed save by political rancor,
oooSAr Il A.4- Nr1- -
and Armenians, which only sharpened their
wits, and left no lasting bruises or discolor-
ations The sky fit down so perfectly on all
sides that there could be no doubt that Mid
dletown was the center Of Gods earthly
creation.
PROGRESS AND MISERY.
In 1879 this Arcadia was disturbed by the
shrek of the locomotive whistle on the
Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railway, and GER
tainly the serpent played no greater havoc
in Eden than did the locomotive in Middle
town, now Coraopolis. Agricultural land
was plotted off into lots, and Moon town.
ship assessors refused longer to class it as
agricultural. The matter went to court
some three years ago after a triennial assess
ment and the result was that some land
was finally left assessed at 500, some at
$500, and some at 5000 an acre. This crazy
quilt arrangement held until last spring
when another triennial valuation was made
which gives in numerous places no more
satisfaction than that of 1886. There
is talk of testing its validity,
and those who feel aggrieved say
that if this one holds it will be the last Of
its kind, or they are egregiously mistaken.
A man who does business in the city, but
lives in Coraopolis, says he pays taxes on a
valuation of 5000 an acre, others of $675
an acre, others of $575 an acre, and others
of 500 an acre, and some of the cheaper
property is much nearer the center of busi-
ness, which is in the vicinity of the princi-
pal railway station, than is his.
But this is not the only grievance. The |
next in line is of still greater moment. A |
few days ago 1t was announced that the P.
& L. E. R. Co. proposed that two of the fast |
trains should omit to stop at Corodpolis. Alb |
jurgations loud and deep followed the an |
nouncement but some ofthe grumblers have |
been Modified by promise that two accom- |
mediation trains would be placed on the road |
to supply the places of the flyers, and the
only drawback would be the loss of 10 or 20 |
minutes time each day. ~
POVERTY IN THE AMUSEMENT LINE.
There is yet another grievance. Coraopo-
lis has no theater, nor has it any lecture |
course, nor even a frst-class speak-easy, |
consequently those who cannot enjoy them
selves at church, prayer meeting or the or
dinary social gatherings OF the town must
either spend their evenings loa6ng in the
groceries, or at the postofice, or cultivate
the pleasures of domesticity. Amusements
in the city are too much protracted to allow
patrons 10 get full fruitiOn and yet reach
the Southside in time to take the 1870 P. NJ.
train. Consequently Coraopolitans must
subsist on intellectual brown bread and
pork and beans and forego the dessert, and
some of them murmur as did the Israelites
when confined to quail on toast as steady
diet, and the wall Inns been maintained for
year past.
There is remedy for all this, but the
patient refuses to take it, at least consid-
erable portion of him" does. 1t consists in
the Turing of a sufficient population into the
town to make it an object for the railway
company to put on more trains, and were
this stimulated by competition they would
make their appearance as soon as the ma
gician could wave his wand. Charters has
all the trains it needs, not altogether, be- /
cause they all pay largely; but also because
steamboats, and street railway lines COM
pete.
QUESTION OF PAYING.
When it will pay to run a late train to
Coraopolis it will likely be put on, almost
certainly will, if an electric railway were
made on Neville Island, and the lower end
connected by bridge with Coraopolis.
There would be scarcely any grading need
ed, and bridge would cost less than $20, 900.
People on the island have been agitating the
project for several months, and some Cora
opolitans favor it, but there are some report
ed to be opposed on the ground that it will,
or may, hurt the sale of lots on the main
land by peopling the island. One disguised
villager was heard remark, apropos of the
'There'n be no substantial i'm
here until there are some first
class funerals"
The last Council elected has done good
work in getting board walks and streets
made so that people can get around without
stills in wet weather, but as a residence
place the village will not succeed until it
has more facilities for intercourse with the
city 1t isn't likely to be a manufacturing
town for some time to come, and those who
have bought for residence do not want mills
located there.
The desuetude that followed the revo-
proceeding of putting down
walks, grading streets and the furore over
The triennial assessment has been broken by
,he attempt to establish a cemetery. One Of
he objectors insists that if the company
wants cemetery it should build water
works first, as the site chosen drains into
me village, and much sepulture might
poison the wells and discourage the temper
lnce element, which was shown to be very
arge on the 1Sthof June.
THE greatest cure on earth for pain, Sal
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X cents a bottle