The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-09-16
CHICAGo's STREET CARS.
A Brief History Of the Rise and
Growth Of the Gable System
What the Worlds Fair City Has Done In
the Last Few Years In the Way
of Rapid Transit-The
Motive Power.
Especial Chicago Correspondence


not get acquainted with it until they
are called upon to show it to visitor.
was reminded of this circumstance
as l was riding on North side cable
car the other day. Riding on street
car is such n common thing that no one
thinks anything of it. But on this oc-
casion / was in the company of a
friend who had not been long in Chi
eago and who was more apt to notice
things than one who has grown into
them and become so used TO everything
that he no longer remarks what is
really extraordinary.
at is really n wonderful system
when you come to think of 1t, he said,
''this cable system in Chicago. l don't
believe there Is another city in the
world that has anything like it. Here
we are, going through the city at
speed of eight or ten miles an hour,
and the motion of the cars is as easy as
that of n carriage. And then those
loops and tunnels!"
1t is true, the ca bic system of Chicago
is something quite remarkable, the
more so if one considers the difficulties
with which it has had to contend.
There was time in the early history
of Chicago when few miles of tracks
on a plank pavement, operated with
bobtail cars, satisfied the demands for
rapid transit; and these times are not
so far removed but what some citizens
of Chicago can well recall them. There
was a line of cars on State street rum
ming as far south as Twelfth and later
TO Twenty-second street. 1t operated,
when at its height, sixty bobtail cars,
and when it abandoned the horse car
system for the cable it had twenty-five
and a half miles of track and carried
thirty thousand passengers a day. This
was less than fifteen years ago, when
Chicago had grown TO be quite a city.
To-day the Chicago City Railway Com
pany, which controls the territory of the
South side-that is, south and east OF
the Chicago river and to the shore OF
Lake Michigan-has one hundred and
fifty-two miles of track and operates
twelve hundred aad fifty cars of the
most improved modern type. 1t has
two main lines on State street and Cot
, tage Grove avenue, both OF which are
cabled for distance of seven to eight
miles. From these main lines run any
number of cross-town lines or feed
ers," so called from the railway mans
point of view. These feeders extend
into the residence portions and make it
convenient to reach the cable lines
by horse car lines. Whenever a new
e n
feeder is run out to it and it is thus
connected with the main lines of the
cable system. The horse cars of these
! feeders are either coupled on the
/ cable trains as ''traiiers," or, in most
cases, transfer tickets are given. The
! cars will thus carry 4 passenger nine
! and one-half miles for five cents. The
/ South side being rather elongated il
! form, the distances to be traverseC
from the business center of the city are
: long and passengers have to be car
/ ried far.
Each man cable line has two or three
separate cables. The State street line
for instance, consists of three cable:
i exclusive of the loop" down town
! From Madison street to Twentieth
street the cars run at the rate of si1
miles an hour, from Twentieth street
TO Thirty-ninth. the old city limits, a
the rate of eight miles an hour, from
there to Sixty-third street at the rate
of twelve miles an hour. A distance o.
seven miles is thus made in forty-seveI
minutes.
If you have lady with you and wan
to have a breathing spell during which
you can read your paper and be spare'
from talking, take 2 ride on Soutl
side cable car, Try to catch a box ca
if you can. Unless you have a micro
phone or some other device for increas
ing the power of your voice you may bt
assured that after one or two attempt:
your companion will stop talking unit
you leave the car. The noise is sufh
cient to drown trombone and has.
drum combined.
In this particular the North and Yves
side cars are much less effective. You
ride in them with the greatest comfort
They are higher above the ground ant
are set on trucks like steam railroad
coaches, so that there is but Httl
Earring of the passengers or clatterin;
of windows.
The cable is queer arrangement
for propelling cars. One would thinl
that in this age when electricity i
taking the place of steam so rapid.
and electric railways are operated sue
cessfully at various places peopl
would hesitate to invest large amount
of capital in so clumsy q system of ma
chinery as this cable arrangement
Imagine cable several miles in lengtl
being pulled by machinery. cabl
about one and one-half to two inche
through, made of steel wire and o
such heft that, even when the tire
mendous strain of lot of trains run
ming thirty seconds apart is upon it,
will never be taut but lie down slac'
few feet behind the train it is pulling
The North and West side cable sys
TENS are by far the most ingenious an
complicated from a mechanical point c
view These are not the even, Ion
stretches of straight running street:
but the cable runs around corner:
Jumps other cables, descends into an
rises from tunnels leading underneat
the Chicago river. There has bee
much said in disparagement of thes
systems of cables. Most of this oppC
sition arose from popular prejudic
against the owners, who were not On
cago people, but Philadelphians
headed by Charles T. Yerkes. But, afte
all. people are beginning to realize tina
with all its Objectionable features IN
Philadelphia syndicate has given Oh
cago a system of rapid surface transi
that is quite remarkable in view of tn