The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1892-11-02
RRoApwAY.
BY vALrER. .wFllnAx.

Twenty-third to Forty-second street
about two miles.
This main street Of thei Dutch village
Of New York starts at the lower end of
the Island-st sthe Battery. There are
the shipping offices. headquarter Of the
steamers lines. Then comes Office build
iugs-two or three Of them as fine as
score to be seen in ChiCago-insurancs
Offices, banks. Thensthe postofiee, Print
ing House square, City Hall park. Aisr
this the dry goods district.
For two miles Broadway is a CONNER
eials Palestine. SiRety-nine signs out Of
a hundred bear Hebraie names, many Of
them names which is symbolic Of great
wealth, business probity, good citizen
ship. It is remarkable how everything
has become specialized in this region Of
trade. There are few general dry goods
OF clothing houses. One handless hat
trimming, another eOrsets, third straw
frames, a fourth hosiery, a dfth suspend
ers, sixth artificial howars. Men and
women's wear is sub-divided Thousand
times, each article being the solestGek in
trade Of one or dozen or hundred
houses. One is amazed 10 see a six story
building devoted wholly to merchandis-
ing in butter.
Broadway is very commercial for these
two miles. Nearly all the houses are
Wholesale. There are no alleys in the
rear or at the sides Of buildings. and the
receiving and shipping is ali done on
the front sidewalks. The street Is pack
ed with trucks, and it is about all pedes-
trian or vehicle can DO 10 get through.
The lost time in asiDgie year would de-
fray the expenses Of cutting alleys for
shipping purposes. But TO have alleys
for the Eacilita,ion Of commerce would
not be Ike New York There are many
alleys in town, but all have been made
streets Of
At Fourteenth street one enters the
shopping quarter. For three blocks east
and west is the Pretense Of having in the
town some streets besides Broadway.
The same thing occurs halfa mile father
up, at Twenty-third street. For a short
distance, where it is very near Broadway
Fifth avenue takes on some shopping i'm
portance. But these are all the diver
gences there are worth mentioning.
Everything else is Broadway.
Take this th0roughfare out of New
York, and there wouldn't be enough left
to make a Kansas City. Broadway to
New York is what Main street is to the
country town. Northward and a little -
the west sweeps this great th0roughfare.
\ At Harlem, ten miles from the Battery,
/ it is still all important They tell me il
runs twenty miles farther into the coun-
/ try, lined with roadhouses, suburban set
/ Elements, villas and occasional stores.
So important is Broadway as a metro
politan artery IN It the rapid transit com
mission found on investigation tina; the
travel by parallel elevated railroads is
great or small in proportion 10 nearne.s
10 or renoteness from the central high
way. The only means Of travel along
Broadway is by horse ear. Il is the most
profitable horse ear line in the world.
Tea miles long, there ears every minute
and al crowded. They are driven at
breakueck speed. Only the best horses
are used, and their life is a yea. and a
I Lrr L t.t-.- - ,..-,..h ,r.,r.r-a to T~f,-s.
a Broadway car as to run locomotive.
The stranger who has two OF three
miles to 90 walks to the J. and climbs the
stairs. The New Yorker knows better
and taks q brOadRay car. You see, d
Broadway car takes him from his ssart-
ing poiat directly to his destination.
/ There are other streets with horse and
/ cable ears. but 50 FAR Is ! have observed
three-fourths Of the people want to 90
from some place on Broadway. The re-
suit is many "shOrt rider" sort OF
passengers who enrich street car owners.
l II the ears had to carry ali passengers
from Harlem 20 Battery at a niekle eapiece
owners would not get much in the way
of dividends. Bdtinstead Of twenty-five
passengers, the capacity Of the ear, $50
are often carried 10 The course Of a run
one way.
The Broadway line carries half as many
passengers as the elevated line 4, Arrest r.
When the cIble ears are started-the
cable is already int win carry nearly
as many. O.d J4ks Sharp kneE he wai
getting the m5st valuable street railway
franchise In the World shen he gobbiee
Broadway. Tie effort put him frs
in Jail and then in his grave. but if he
had lived tsenty- years it would have
b made him as rich as Vanderbilt.
Rapid transit is one Of The CREATES
problem in New York. Thereare fun
elevated rail gays and hve or six surface
roads running north and south, but az thl
busy hours Of the day they can't csIE
the people in comfort.
Broad vay Is TIE center Of the Tspil
transit problem, as t is ofeyery thing els
in New York. TIE engineers aud mem
bers Of the rsp.d raIsit commission
I recognized that vhsa they recommend
ed the constgr1.--a = II an underground
railway under E--adWay from ;he B.
, terry to the ocCni--. such line may b
p built some ca, =. doubt it. The eos
cannot be accasately estimated, but IL
supposed si:i reach S2,O00.00O a mile O
S4OO00.0J0, includinga branch liue frol
Fourteenth street 10 the eas, side Of Cen
o tral park. 81 far capitalists don't aPPea
to want the contract. The line woul
e have to carry 10000 pass myers day
pay iEteres, on the inte iment, and the
y have figured oa, that this means ] o.
full laieu trains ia each direction in u
# twenty-four hours. There being onl
five or six hours a day in shich travel
l. heavy and profitable, IL is a serious one
s. ton whether il our generation the trait
e would warrant the enormous expend
1t ture.
2 Theology gstsa I;tle mixed up in th
- youthful miaJ.
WHO made you asked teacher Z
's a little girl
Il She answered, "Gad made me tI-