Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-24
A LOOK AROUND.


'sIr Is true I have been spoken to in
regard-to going into newspaper scheme"
remarked Mayor Gourley, "but have never
had any intention of going into such an
enterprise"
II AM about tired out, remarked District
Passenger Agent Watt, of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, yesterday. "There has
never been such q season for passenger
traf1c in the history of the road. We have
carried at least Is per cent more people than
any summer before. and the season is not
over by month. We have taken in special
excursions alone at least 5000 people to the
seashore and our picnic business to 1dlewild
has been over lC0.o0O. All the railroads have
done an enormous business"
"SoMEwHAT brighter for finished iron,
but dull as ditch-water on furnace product,
and everybody stocked up" is the way
Horace Dravo, the iron broker, summarized it.
The Saturday half-holiday gives you .
chance to notice the growth in population
OF the towns and villages along the Penn
sylvanfa Railroad, say from Huntingdon to
Pittsburg. At every station you see great
crowds of people with clean faces and wear
ing good clothes. Many of them are city
folk out for the day or country folk on their
way to the city. Despite strikes and lock-
outs Pennsylvania people seem to be con.
tented and prosperous and in mood to
take an afternoons pleasurfng. The result
is that all sorts OF passenger trains are
crowded, the aisles are full and platforms
are jammed.
'tIs the present movement in Pittsburg
realty a boom, bubble or a boon?" said to
one of the shrewdest Of city real estate
operators. "It is solid business growth"
he replied. little hotly. "I hear
good deal of talk about it be-
ing boom and dire predictions are
af1oat as to the outcome, but it is all rot.
That is the way they talked 20 years ago
when the town stood still and watched other
places growing. am in position to judge
and base my reasoning on good grounds.
My experience is that from 80 to 80 per cent
of the buying for the past four years has
been with cash or resources equal to cash
behind it. 1t has been done BY those who
wanted homes or places to do business in.
There has been comparatively little mort
gaging done, and much Of what has been
done was by people who could take care of
all their property easily, but who had other
things in which to use money at good ad-
vantage.
BOOMERS, as 1 take it, are fellows who
go about with nothing and want to get
something for it-men who take ten-minute
options on 80 acres and run around the cor
ner to unload on somebody who has money
Now when You get right down to it you will
find but very little of this. There are many
classes of substantial purchasers. Some
are those who buy lots to build
themselves homes. some are those
who buy to extend their present premises.
Others are buying to open new streets and
build new additions to old localities that
have been settled for years. Senator Finn
and men of that kind, who have several
millions in realty, are not boomers. They
are builders and sellers in the most substan-
tial manner. 1 have been astonished to see
so much ready money at hand among the
poorer people, but it is a fact that the tend
ency is less every year toward leasing and
more toward buying. IF this is booming and
bubbling, then 1 do not understand these
terms and am willing to be corrected by
wiser heads"
The want of direct railroad communica-
tion with Bedford is a marvel, considering
the big traffic to that place. No water iii the
country is better thought of than Bedford
water, while the situation of the springs is
in the heart of the most beautiful valley of
the Alleghenies, with picturesque mountain,
WoOulduu anu "dtcE sCcH0Ty Oil every sue.
Bedford is only 100 miles from PIttsburg by
the old pike. Yetit takes 230 miles or there
abouts to reach it from Pittsburg by the
Pennsylvania Railroads. only route, via |
and Broad Top. The B. & o.
route, though shorter, is not much better in
point of time. The South Penn road, which.
with its 81, 900 worth of work, in defiance
of law and Constitution, lies a complete ruin,
would have brought Bedford and the sur
country within three hours of
bv fast running trains. Even now.
u miles Of railroad If built direct from
Johnstown would answer the same purpose;
but in place of that q miles, the Pfttsburger
has to meke a circuit of nearly 100 miles
after passing Johnstown before getting to |
this famous and much frequented old sum-
mer resort. 1t is not much wonder that the |
people in the neighborhood OF Bedford still |
feel sore over the South Penn fiasco, and are |
for branch to Johnstown.
WALTER.