The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-06

o"6 liA"Ao' ~ 10 NeW 1ork. many thou
sands of people virtually live ON Broad
way, rarely going farther from it than
to Fifth avenue on tho east or Sixth ave-
nue. on the west. 1t is their world. X
speak now of the up town Broadway,
from Twenty-third to Forty-second
street, about two miles.
This main street of tho Dutch village
OF New York starts Mt tho lower end OF
tho island-at the Battery There nre
the shipping offices, headquarters of the
steamer lines. Then come Office build
lngs-two or three Of them as fine as d
score to DO seen in Chicago-insuranc
offices, hanks. Then tho postoffice.
Printing House square, City Hall park.
After this the dry goods district
For two miles Broadway is a COM
mercial Palestine. Ninety-nine SIGNS
out of u 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 corsets,
third straw frames, u fourth hosiery,
tth suSpenders, IL sixth artificial flow
erS. Mems and women's wear is sub
divided thousand times, each article
being tho solo stock i'll trade of one or IL
dozen or a hundred houses. One is
amazed to sec q six story building de-
voted wholly to merchandising in but
tons.
Broadway is very commercial for these
two miles. Nearly all tho houses are
wholesale. There arc no alleys in the
rear or ut 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-
TRAN or vehicle can do to get through.
The lost time i'll single year would de-
fray the expenses of cutting alleys for
shipping purposes. But to have alleys
for the facilitation of commerce would
not DO 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
east and west is the pretense of having
i'll the town some street besides Broad-
way. The same thing occurs half mile
farther up, ut Twenty third street. For
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,
tioning. Everything else is Broadway.
Take this thoroughfaro out of New
| York, and there wouldn't be enough left
to mako n Kansas City. Broadway to
New York is what Main street is to the
| country town. Northward and little
10 tho 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 rs IL metro
politan artery that tho rapid transit
commission found on investigation that
the travel by parallel elevated rail
roads is great or small in proportion to
nearness to or remotcness from the cen
trail highway. The only means of travel
along Broadway is horse car. 1t is the
most profitable horse car line in the
world. Ten miles long. there are cars
every minute and all crowded. They
are driven ut breallneck speed Only tho
best horses are used, and their life" il
year and u half. 1t takes rs much
courage TO drive a Broadway car rs to
run IL locomotive.
Tho stranger who has two or three
miles TO go walks to the l. and climbs
the stairs. The New Yorker knows bet
ter Gnd takes IL Broadway car. You
see, Il Broadway car takes him from his
starting point directly to his destina-
| ton. There arc other streets with horse
and cable cars, but so far as have OBJ
served threefourths of the people want
to go from some place on Broadway to
some other place on Broadway The
result Is many 'shOrt riders"-the sort
Of passengers who enrich street car
owners. II the cars had to carry all
passengers from Harlem to Battery at Il
nickel apiece. owners would not get
much i'll 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 IL run one way.
The Broadway line carries half as
many passengers as the elevated line
nearest it. When the cable cars are
started-the cable is already int will
carry nearly us many. Old Jake Sharp
knew he was getting the most valuable
street railway franchise in the world
when he gobbled Broadway The effort
put him first in Jail and then in his
grave, but if no had lived twenty-five
years it would have made him as rich as
Vanderbilt.
Rapid transit is one of the greatest
problems i'll New York. There are four
elevated railways and five or six surface
roads running north and south, but nj