Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-26
Allegheny Valley and the Pennsylvania
JOURNEYS TO EAST LIBERTY.

JOURNEYS TO EAST LIBERTY.
Oakland and East Liberty were both out
side OF Pittsburg. East Liberty passengers
ALWAYS went by the railroad, unless they
were very unfortunate indeed. The other
means of reaching that very desirable suburb
was by means of the horse cars on the Oak
land and East Liberty Passenger Railway.
To 90 to Oakland bY that route was a peni-
tential Journey in those davs; and to go to
East Liberty was to deserve a martyrs
crown. I have known those who made the
journey-once. Does anybody know of one
who willingly undertook the passage a
second time?
In this as in all other things, there has
been a change and the cable railways have
wrought it. What used to be dreaded ex-
perience is now a verv easy and pleasant
one. 1t was formerly the pleasant custom
of jokers to suggest sleeping cars on the
Oakland line. They don't do it now. And
people going to the old-time suburb of East
Liberty have the choice of two cable lines,
beside the railroad. Verify an old-tlmer
would have thought himself dreaming if he
had imagined such thing.
Things are better than they were-far
better. And yet they are not good enough.
With the cable and electric roads established,
people are apt to think that rapid transit
has been secured and that the limit of prog
ress has been reached. They will not
always think so. however. Pittsburg Is
growing at a wonderful rate. What used to
be distant suburbs are now thickly popu-
lated parts of the city proper. In every di-
rection real estate is booming. Those who
were shrewd enough years ago to buy prop
erty IN East Liberty, Oakland and other
districts lying about the old city, find them
selves more than justified by the present
r m Il L.
eagerly by those who wish to make homes
for their families within easy reach of the
business center of the city.
POSSIBILITIES OF RAPID TRANSIT.
Shortly these will begin to think that
even the present improved methods OF
transit are not fast enough for them. Then
some means of genuine rapid transit will be
devised and established. That is predic-
ton; and like all predictions that achieve
fulfillment it shall be left vague and unde-
fined. will not undertake to say whether
the swifter progress will be by means of an
elevated railroad or not. If it does come in
that form there rnay be much comfort for
those interested in the present methods, in
the recollection that the surface roads in
New York and other cities have prospered
more since the elevated roads were estab-
lished than they ever did before.
Not only are there more people in Pitts
burg than there used to be, but they are of
different sort. As they have learned how to
travel they have brought home more and
more of the methods and of the spirit of the
aggressively progressive outside world.
Like the bright and capable but inexperi-
enced country boy who comes to the city
and straightway puts on city clothes and
city manners, so Pittsburg, having rubbed
shoulders familiarly with other cities, has
laid aside its provipcialism like home
made garment
1t cannot be denied that 25 years ago
Pittsburg was provincial. 1t seemed SO, at
New York or Chicago. There was hustle |
enough, and hurry enough, and energy
enough about the Iron City. But the busi-
ness which occupied it had not the compre-
hensive sweep of an independent city.
A GREAT WORKSHOP.
It was big manufacturing town, and lit
tie else. Its business was tributary to its
mills and its glasshouses, and its business |
methods seemed stifened by the amount of |
iron in them. The streets were thronged |
with the vehicles of traffic. Penn avenue
seemed one of the busiest streets had ever |
seen In my life. The cars had hardly an |
to go faster than a walking pace |
because of the multitude of laden wagons;
but they were all iron wagons.
That was it. OF the varied and multi
piled businesses that go to the making up of
a well-proportioned city Pittsburg had but
a comparatively small share. 1t had the
suggestions and beginnings of them even
then. but they had not developed to any
thing like prime Importance. They have
now, and they are growing stronger and
stronger day by day. There is now no sug-
gestion of the old provincial suit of home
spun, or of the homely provincial awkward
ness which it covered. The strong village
boy of old has become the self-confdent city
merchant; and he wears a bright and natty
business suit of the latest cut; and he is in a
hurry to get from his business place to his
home and back again; and very soon he will
demand the most rapid of rapid transits, and
will get it. JAMES c. PURDY.