The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-07-20
NEW YORK LETTER.
tPosr's special correspondence,
New York, July II, 1893.

70 the Editor Of the Post:
The much heralded cable cars on
Broadway have not, as yet, got down
to good smooth working order. 1t
has been my luck to travel on this
line, at just the proper time. to note
this fact. Last week when the first
DELAY and afterwards the wild runa-
way took place, it found me detained
over half-hour on one of the plaguey
things, but thank my lucky star, 1
wasn't there when the cable car on
whose grip the cable had managed to
secure half hitch, which all efforts
to break off proved unavailing, started
on it's mad run down crowded Broad
way, carrying everything before it,;
knocking over wagons and horses,
but most marvelously and unaccOunt-
ably. injuring no one seriously. Last
Wednesday cable car 20 lost its
grip on the cable, and, as the grlp
when once lost, under the present
system can only be taken up at each
end of the route, its motive power
was gone, and if car - hadn't come
gallantly to the rescue, and bctwlxt
pushing, showing and humping us
down to the terminus, we would have
been left again way up at Union
Square soliloquizing on the conven-
fence of travelling on the principle
streets of the city AS yet, it is un-
explained how the gripman allowed
the grip to be lost OF course there
are different versions; the most prob
able one is that he got to thinking it
was "long time between drinks,
and cable, grip, car and your humble
servant, for the time being was for
gotten. BE this as it may, New
York, as yet, has not had perfect
street car service on Broadway since
the cable took the place Of the horse
as motive power, and it is, at this
time, only another case "whcre reall-
cation has not come up to antlcipa-
ton
The cable, as source of locomo-
ton on surface cars, is all right as
long as everything IS all right, but
let something go wrong on single
point of the road, and it is all wrong.
The only car that can be depended
upon at all times and places is the
one whose motive power is Of it alone
and separate from any and all
other trains, and not dependent, with
all the other cars, as on cable road,
on a central station for the transmits
sion of its motive power. Direct
motive power, whether steam or stor-
age battery is the best and most re-
liable power known, that is unless
every man constitutes himself his
own source of locomotion-this is the
safest and surest, although slow, but
in a great city this is impossible.
The much despised horse winks its
eye, and pricks up its ears, as o dis
abIcd car slowly passes by, and me-
thinks moralizes something after
this fashion: "Ah, ha! | wasn't
good enough; too slow, you said, not
possessed of the requisite endurance,
and now, you've got something on
Broadway that portion of the time
wont, or can't, go at all. How dc
you like the change, Mister Man,
And all the denizcns of Broadway, to
a man, answers in unison: owe
don't like it at ALL
The cable car on Broadway is a
dead failure, and the service must be
improved, in order to give satisfac-
ton. Why, all the little country
towns, for miles around are laughing
at us, and point to their perfect SER
vice of electric cars with pride, and
the Broadway cable is, to them, al
most as great a source of laughter as
the "misfts" now travelling under
the title of "New York Base ball
Club" the erstwhile "Giants,' now
known as the "Joints
At the Stock Exchange the other
day, well-known broker had been
selling" all day and buying COM
paratively nothing, and on being re-
minded of this fact by u brother
broker, offered to buy his vest-a
very pretty one, of the attest figure,
and offered to pay him ~ 80 for the
same. Broker No , Immediately
snapped him up, and took off coat
and vest and made the "delivery."
and was we'll satisfied, Tor %Hld vest
had only cost him the sum of 90 cts,
and Broker No on learning this fact,
made directly for his office, to "cov-
err it is said. vowing he would never
again invest in white vests, at least
not on the Stock Exchange, unless
each one contained Waterbury
watch.