Evening journal., 1892-09-23

the shipping offices, headquarters Of the
steamer lines. Then come Office build
ings-twO or three Of them as fine as a
score TO be seen in Chicago-insurance
Offices, banks. Then the postofiice.
Printing House square, City Hall park
After this the dry goods district.
For two miles Broadway is a COM
mercial Palestine. Ninety-nine signs
ont of a hundred bear Hebraic names.
many Of them names which is sym
bolic of great wealth, business probity,
good citizenship. 1t is remarkable how
everything has become specialized in
this region of trade. There are few gen
eral dry goods or clothing houses. One
handles hat trimmings, another corsots,
a third straw frames, fourth hosiery,
fifth suspenders, sixth artificial flow
ers. Mems and wOmcn's wear is sub
divided thousand times, each article
being the sole stock in trade of one or a
dozen or n hundred houses Ono is
amazed to see a six story building de-
voted wholly TO merchandising in but
tons.
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 are all done on
the front sidewalks. The street is packed
with trucks, and it is about all pedes-
trian or vehicle can do to get through
Tho lost timo in a single year would de-
fray the expenses Of cutting alleys for
shipping purposes. But TO have alleys
for the facilitation Of commerce would
not bo like 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
cast and west is the pretense Of having
in the town some street besides Broad
way. The same thing occurs half a mile
farther up, at Twenty-third street. For
a short distance. where it is very near
Broadway, Fifth avenue takes on some
shopping Importance. But these are all
( the divergences there are worth men,
tiouing. Everything else is Broadway
Take this thoroughfare out Of New
York, and there wouldn't be enough left
TO make Kansas City. Broadway to
New York is what Main street Is to the
country town. Northwnrd and little
10 the west sweeps this great thorough
fare, At Harlem, ten miles from the
Battery, it is still all important They
tell me it runs twenty miles farther into
the country, lined with roadhouses.
suburban settlements, villas and occa-
sional stores.
so important is Broadway as a metro
politan artery that tho rapid transit
commission found on investigation that
,hc travel by parallel elevated rail
roads is great or small in proportion to
nearness to or remoteness from tho cen
trail highway. Tho only means of travel
along Broadway is horse car. 1t is the
most profitable horse car line IN tie
world. Ten miles long, there arc cars
every minute and all crowded. They
arc driven at breaknock speed. Only tho
best horses are used, and their "life" il
a year and q half. It takes as much
courage TO drive a Broadway car as to
run locomotive.
The stranger who has two or three
miles to 60 walks to the l. and climbs
the stairs. Tho Now Yorker knows bet
ter ana takes q Broadway car. You
sec, Broadway car takes him from his
starting point directly to his destina-
ton. There are other streets with horse
| and cable cars, but so far as / have OBJ
| served three-fourths Of the people want
to go from some place on Broadway to
some other place on Broadway. The
result is many "short riders" sort
| Of passengers who enrich street car
owners. If the cars had to carry all
| passengers from Harlem TO Battery at a
nickel apiece, owners would not get
much in the way Of dividends. But in
stead of twenty-five passengers, the ca
! pacity Of n car, $50 are often carried in
the course of run one way.
The Broadway line carries half rs
many passengers as the elevated line
nearest it.. When the cable ears arc
started-thc cable is already init will
carry nearly rs many. Old Jake Sharp
knew he was getting the most valuable
street railway franchise in the world
when he gobbled Broadway. Tho effort
put him first in Jail and then in his
grave, but if he had lived twenty-five
years it would have made him as rich as
Vanderbilt.
Rapid transit is one of the greatest
problems in New York. There are -four
elevated railways and five or six surfacC
roads running north and south, but nj
the busy hours of the day they cam
carry the people in comfort.
Broadway is the center of the rapit
transit problem, as it is of everything
Else in New York. The engineers an,
members of the rapid transit commits
zion recognized that when they recon
mended tho construction of an under
ground railway under Broadway from
the Battery TO the country. Such a lint
may be built some day, but I doubt il
The cost cannot be accurately csti
mated, but it is supposed win reacl
100000 mile, or $4,000, 600, includ
ing a branch limo from Fourteenth
street to the east side of Central park
So far capitalists don't appear to wan
The contract The line would have z
carry 5OO,0O0 passengers a day 10 pa
interest on the investment, and the
P have figured 10 out that this means ,0C
f,a11 loT,r, f-ofs,c Il, a..h lfrar.ff,r, -, p.