Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-05-07
WORK UNDERGROUND.
Thousands Of Men Toll Beneath the
Streets.

These vaults lights are the windows
of the underground workers IN New
York. At the first sight this phase
seems startling. The idea of under
ground workers in this CITY appears
odd and strange, vet more than lOO, 600
New York citizens, according TO a con-
servatIve estimate spend the working
hours of the day beneath the level OF
the ground, and see the sun and sky
and the gay throngs only In their leis-
ure hours
Millions upon millions of dollars are
invested In property that Is kept under
the sidewalks: thousands upon thous-
ands of dollars are spent upon ventil-
ating and lighting the underground
chambers. III the North River were To-
overflow its banks some night when the
town was quietly sleeping, and e
worthy burghers were to find the Wa. er
on "A ley ell with the first floors the next
morning, the damage sustained By the
business community would be hundreds
of millions
OF the wholesale dry goods houses
there are some in which the Easements
and sub Easements are the most Impor-
ant departments of the entire business.
In one large wholesale dry good house
on lower Broadway the basement Is
used for imported upholstery goods.
The store Is on a corner, and the base
ment Is an immensely large room run
ming out under the sidewalk on Broad
way and on the cross street also.
Twenty-Five persons are employed here
at salaries ranging from 81, 800 to 81,
500 n year, who are never outside of
the basement during business hours
except when they go out to luncheon.
proved ventIlating apparatus, and the
vault lights are SO constructed that on
ordinary days no artificial means of
lighting is found necessary. At the
present time the stock IN the basement
Is worth, at the importers rating, SiOO-
900.
The soil at this particular spot will
not permit of sub-cellar, as the water
comes bubbleing up, and even with the
present basement n solid concrete floor
has been found n cessary IN order to
keep out the damp. In other parts Of
Broadway where this condition does
not prevail all the dry goods houses
have sub-basements, which are usually
devoted to two purposes; one contains
the Surplus stOcS, and the other the
packers department In very large
dry goods house 400 and 500 cases aday
are received during the busy seasons,
and large number of men are kept
busy placing and sorting their con
tents.
In these same houses the first base
ment Is used for staple goods, such as
linens aud cottons. The value of these
III business OF the first class woull av-
erage about 100000. There are some
stores which have even three base
ments. The first is reserved for blank
cts, which make valuable stock; the
second for staples. and the third for
reserved stock. The staples are always
kept IN the basement, for the reason
that they are being sold almost as rap
idly a. they come into the house and
have TO be handled quickly. Such
houses employ IN the neIghbOrhood of
200 men, whose work lies entirely Le-
meath the ground floor. The work of
ventilating sub-basements Is by no
m ans easy, aud always expensive,
wh.le the light requires artificial assist
nuce ut all times
The owner of building Is generally
supposed TO own to the center of the
street, but as "A matter of fact the city
receives considerable income from
those proprietOrs who eIcavate under
the sidewalk Usually the tax demand
In addition to this expense, contractors
receive S5per square foot for all excavat-
ing under the str, ct and sidewalk The
work Is particularly difficult, as It Is
necessary to put IN very substantial
supp orts To prevent the sidewalk or
street from caving IN The owner of
one large store told the reporter that IT
had cost him over $1,000 for eNcavat-
ing aud finishing his basement under
the sidewalk alone.
In the lower part of the city, where
the big Wholesale liquor houses are,
and where some of the safety deposit
companies have vaults, there are places
where the excavations 60 even beyond
the curb. When the question OF an
underground railway on Broadway was
first considered one of the main obIec-
tions urged by the property holders
Was that IT would interfere with their
underground vaults The big liquor
importers keep hundreds of tons of
wine of the rarer qualities In their sub
cellars
But it is in the large retail dry goods
houses up town, those stores where al
most everything is sold, that the base
ment and sub-basement are most i'm
portant- In one of these the basement
extends from block to block, and con-
tains besides two sales departments,
the packing, receiving and delivery
rooms From 800 to 450 persons are
employed continually in the delivery
and receiving departments alone. Here
a system is in operation without which
the immense business could not be car
ried on. Every article that is sent out
of the house passes through the de-
livery department, and every article
sold over the counters comes from the
receiving department first. Two hun
| dred thousand dollars Is the lowest val
uation placed upon the stock contained
IN the receiving room at any hour OF
| the twenty-four.
DLring the holiday season 240, 900
| packages were handled weekly in the
| delivery room. On two sides of tue
basement the space under the street is
taken up by the engines and ventilat-
ing apparatus. There is here also a
very powerful engine, which operates
the pneumatic tubes by means of which
cash is conveyed from the counters TO
the cashiers department There is a
| ventilating apparatus, which is In oper-
alton IN the basement all the time, and
another which is used throughout the
store during the summer. Incandes-
cent lights are used III all these rooms
at all times of the year. Adjoining the
delivery department is a large sales
| room, in which ordinary china and
lamps are kent, and beyond that a de-
partment for household utensils
Another dry goods house utilities its
basement to keen advantage 1t adver-
tises bargains on certain days of each
weak. and always places them on sale In
n remote corner of the basement. In
prier TO reach these bargains, the shop
Ter has to go through the main floor