Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-04-21
ACROSS BROOKLYN BRIDGE
. TREMENDOUS RUSH ON EVERY
WoRK-DAY EVENING.
People Homeward Bonnd FORM
Human Torrent on the Ne" ORE
side-A Wonderful scene.


around the New York end oil tue
East River bridge on every work-day
evening. The gaping nav OF the bridge
has been at work laz ly during the alter
noon sucking in few s:ragSler' and
.arowint out little squads OF folk from
t,e trans tnat run henln1 it. But whea
five o'c,ock comes the drops OF the ap-
nro,chinr tempest OF humanity that 10 to
storm the place like revolutionary moo
around a B4stillo begin to appear IN
Printing house Square. They come iaster'
and run to gether in little rlvulets up
Park Row, down Chatham street, along
Centre street, and across the CITY nan
Park-all turned one way, all streaming
toward the bridge. Even then they
give no warning of what is to come, ex'
cent to those VINO know that the torrent
Is as certain to develop aud as sure to
become tremendous as that tidal bore
which daily swells the S'guenay with Its
erwhelming flood.
The black drops come faster and
thicker. They splash in sudden numbers
from the nearby office bulldIn5saud the
horse cars. The little streams now
lengthen out, aud from far up and down
the streets aud across tue park in Broad
wav. 1t is O'CLOCK, aud the offices In
the buildings that hold villageflls are
closing. 1t is no longer a sprinkle.
1t is shower. Farther and farther
away the human drops miugIe; bigger
grow the converging streams. At hall
past five the wholesale stores aud the
warehouses are closing. 1t Is a torrent
now. At six the factories and the work
shops thrust 4 myriad toiIers upon the
streets. The very clouds of tue ctv's
humanity appear to have gathered over
one spot. The usual Confines no longer
holi the two legged drops which now
jostle one another oil the sidewalks, into
the cutters, out upon the roadways, all
over the parks asphaltum. The outlook
from the upper stories Of the nelghbor'
hood Is upon a sea Of people, in droves
like wild cattle, coming up as il out oil
the earth from every direction, pushing,
hurryiny, covering every open space like
ocusts. Now it IS a pelting rain. Hall
An hour passes, aud the elevated trains,
when cone ike breathing, absorb half
the crowd SO fast that the station stairs
become as the be Is Of inverted catarscts
up which the dark torreut climbs resist
lcssly. the horse cars fro II both dlrec.
tion' stop and disc lar &c people az guns
arc wheeled up, fired, AMI dr., gei
away on a battlefield. 1t is a cloudblrst,
aud 1t has made mill race something
far bigger than that-the swollen drain
Of a human freshet.
Thirty thousand men, women anl
children are in the torrent, thirty thou.
sand pedestrians in ninety minute down.
pour; for though the rush is between
five o'clock and seven, it is thlnnci at
both ends, ali the bulk OF it is CON.
pressed in period Of between sixty aud
ninety minutes. This is not countiny
the almost equal numbers that seek the
elevated cars. The sur5ing black waves,
whlte.cappel with humsn faces, huri
themselves against the granite steps that
I'd 10 the yawning iron throat of the
bridge and spread over them. There is
no more sigu OF in1ivilutl motion than
there is in the herds of sheep that one
LOOKS down upon from the Colorado
Mountains when the dr1ves are moving
along the valleys like floating brown isl
anls, as clouds move against the SKY.
Overhead on trestle that crosses from
the City Hall PArG, another black cur.
rent, from the stclm-cars, keeps pace
with the tide below. In tlat way the
exodus to Brooklyn moves over every
thing ahead Of it, as if, were tue bridge
to fall, the people would still keep
straight on, illing the river, aud press.
ing forward upon the IN iermost DO lies.
We read about the E Iropeiu capitals.
treated with the sSlll Of artists, clothc |
with the glamour OF tradition, ald col.
ored by the fancy tina: gro - r.cl,;
with the distance OF its subject. But
what has London to show ike that
daily congestion At the Brooklyn Bridge !
What crowds IN Paris are to be meas
urci vita thisi What Z iropeau city has
even one of the many strau &c conditions
that produce this sclnel Here come the
elevated railways that carry three.
| quarters OF II million souls day, the
surface vehicles Of the million aud six
hundred thousand people Of Manhattan,
the streets len ling from the densest pop
rlatlon in America, all meeting 10 one
little square, all pouring out pc Jple, ani
all the people streaming into a great
trumpetllke mouth Of iron in order to
be shot across a hanging cobweb OF
metal threads into a city that has not its
mate or counterpart on earth BROOKLYN
1t is like city IN some things. 1t is a
vast aggregation OF homes aud streets
and shops, with a government OF its
own. Yet many things it has not got
things with which many little town
could put 1t to the blush. Aud every
other city earns its own way, while
Brooklyn works for New YORK, and
aud is paid oil like shop girl on Satur.
day nights.
stop SHOWN So! "L0ok out who
you're pushingH "Oon't try to run over
me, say" These are notes from the
chorus of the solid mss of persons that
crowd up tho stairs to the bridge cars.
On the upper platform the train sweep
away regiments at a time. Burly brid ge
policemen are there urging every one
forward, and at times-until the news.
papers cry out, periodically putting
their hands on their be.ters and wed ging
them into the cars, through three doors
at once, as revolvcrs are charged. There
are fourteen other ways to Brooklyn, all
by ferry-boats, and at the time of which
write all these are crowded. They are not
mobbed like the bridge, to be sure, but
they are packed with people so that you
can only see the rims of the decks as YOU
see the edge OF a grocer's measure that