Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-04-08
AN ELECTRIC TRICYCLE..
The Storage Battery Problem Robbed OF
Half Its Difficulties ST. Louis
HapDenincs.


ST.. LOUIS, Mo-, April "a tricycle. went
spinning over the boulevards one fine after
noon last week, and everybody who saw it
turned to look at it curiously. It had no
pedals, and the riders feet were at rest, hav-
ing nothing to do with its propulsion, but
with that exception it was like all tricycles.
The young man riding it vas a mechanic
employed in large bicycle establishment,
and the storage battery by which it was pro-
PEELED he had invented himself, improving
on one that has been abandoned. He says
he has not got his invention to the point
where he can trust it to carry him through
rough usage, and is careful to keep his
tricycle. on the very smoothest streets,
but he is confident that he will have within a
year a battery that will stand any kind of
work. If he succeeds his fortune Is made,
for every street railway in the country is
looking for that very thing.
The question of annexing the suburbs of
st. Louis to the city proper will be before
the people rs soon as this campaign is over.
There is strong party in favor of it already,
and as the plan cannot be consummated, OF
course, till majority of the citizens of both
the town and the suburbs are agreed that it
is good one, a campaign of education will
be begun and earned on until the legislature
meets again. The city has now over half
a million people, and the suburbs it is in
tended to annex have about hundred thou
sand more. Besides the population, the city
would gain enormously in taxable property,
and about five square miles of territory,
while the jewellers of the suburbs would get
the public Improvements, especially water
supply, and the police protection they want.
Architect George R. Mann, who has In
charge the building of the new city hall
announces that the roof is on, and several
Offices will be ready for occupancy BY the
fall The mayor who is to be elected next
week will be inaugnrated in the present
building, but he will move into the new one
before he has served year of his term.
building will be without a superior IN the
country. It has been erected by plans
which the city got through a money compe-
tition among architects at home and abroad,
paying several thousand dollars for them,
and while there has been no jobbing in the
building there has also been no false econ
omy. When completed the hall will have
cost the city nearly two million dollars.
There will be several new street railway
lines built in the city this summer. All OF
them will be electric lines, of course. That
goes without saying In ST. Louis nowadays.
One of the most important of all these will be
the railway betting Forest park. The fran
chise is to be sold at auction by the city, the
plan having been proposed by municipal
engineers, and will bring, it is expected,
fully half million dollars. Thousands of
people 60 out to the park every day winter
and summer. It is one of the city's sights.
None of them would fail to ride around the
beautiful forest after the proposed line is
which gets the franchise will easily make %
per cent on the half-milllon investment.
This will be the first experiment. the city
has msdo in selling franchises by auction.