St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-25
TO MERRIAM BY CABLE
The Selby Extension Put in
Operation and Smoothly
Glides.
Patrons Prefer the Rapid
Transit to the Slower
Lower Line
( u -
A Waif on Lies Ocean In
Charge Of the Humane
Society
The Shorter From SnortvilIe
Cooled Down by Officer
Mulcape.

The city railway company began
operating its Selby avenue cable extern
sion yesterday morning at o'clock.
The line extends from the power house
at Dale street to Fairview avenue, Mer-
RAM Park, the whole distance from
Broadway to the end of the road being
nearly five miles. Everything moved
like clOckWork from the moment of
starting, and there was not delay Of a
minute during the day. The crowd
which availed itself of the opportunity
to take pleasant outing was very
large in spite of the lowering weather.
The number of people going over the
line from IL to p. m. was about 500.
This was increased to 700 between and
2. to 800 between and 8, to 1000 the
next hour, and to 1900 the next, dwin-
ding away to 6OU again between and
6, and to ordinary traffic during the
evening. Everybody enjoyed the serv-
ice, especially the speed, which is
twelve to thirteen miles an hour. 1t
was amusing to hear the expressions of
regret OF those who had taken the trip
from Dale to FaIrview and return that
the cable from the power house down
town ran at such Snail-like pace. The
company announced to ali passengers
through circulars that trains would run
every five minutes over the whole line
from 6 O'Clock in the morning until
after midnight, the last train leaving
Broadway at 1905 a. M, running
through to Merriam Park and returning
to the power house.
The Selby avenue extension is the
outgroWth of the cooperation of citi-
Zens Of the Seventh and Eleventh wards
with Mr.. Lowry, the former raising a
bonus of 100000 to secure the line.
Work on the line was begun late in
April and practically completed July Il,
but delay in finishing the big bridge
over the Milwaukee tracks caused a
wait of more than a month.
A considerable portion of the crowd
stopped at the bridge. Most people adj
mired it and expressed the opinion that
it would be a credit to the city fifty
years hence, but several interested tax
payers were heard to remark that S25.-
600 bridge was good enough to put over
railroad track.
A pleasant incident of the day was
the display of flags made by an enthu-
siastic resident of Selby avenue just be-
YOuQ v lClOIld StlGGt. liz Idu biSO PFC
pared a large number of ,boutonnIereS.
two Of which he threw on each train,
one for the gripman and the other for
the conductor.
There was deal of fun at the bridge
at the passage of each train. Just at
the center of the structure there is a
level space of about sixty feet, the tracks
slOping away from each side. On reach
ing the top of the incline the gripmen,
acting under Instructions, released the
cable and ran slowly over the flat, Seiz
ing the wire rope again at the Begin
ming of the descent. This suddenly
greatly Increased theSpeed of the train.
and the ladies were heard to utter eX-
pletives which indicated trihe of fear.
Somebody should make haste to build
few hundred feet OF sidewalk at the
end of the line, as there is a great deal
too much sand for comfortable walking.
Some enterprising individual should
also erect an eating establishment. A
dancing pavilion and big park, too,
wouldn't be bad pair of ideas.
The financierS began getting in their
work early. They began taking cable
trains down town, riding to Smelling
avenue, walking a block and half to
Manchester station and buying round
trip tickets to Minneapolis, returning
from the Flour City in the same way,
thus saving Is cents.
For the Information of chad men"
who may be preparing to hold up a
train in the woods between Lexington
avenue and the bridge, it should be
stated that conductors and gripmen
wilt be permitted to carry ''pops' after
o'clock and that conductors seldom
have more than Sc OF IS.
Conductors call the streets until they
get to Victoria. and then subside. allow
ing passengers to indicate where they
want to get off. This is necessary be-
cause many of the cross streets are not
yet graded.