The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1894-02-16
A WONDERFUL TOWN.
ITS NAME is WAYNE, AND 1T is NEAR
PHILADELPHIA.

IouHueu oy ahlHony u. DreNel anu Ueorse
W. Childs-A Place of Quiet Residence.
Away From the Marts of Trade-Police-
men Are Not Needed.
About dozen miles from Philadel.
phia, on the main line of the Pennsylva.
MIA railroad, is the wonderful town OF
Wayne. The wonderful town of Wayne
is a product Of the philanthropy of
George ". Childs, who, together with
Anthony j. Drexel, planned to bring it
into existence for the benefit of such Phil
adelphians as yearned for more suburban
life than was afforded by the shady thor
oughfares and placid highways of their
native city, and as Mr.. Childs and Mr..
Drexel had unlimited capital with which
to carry out the plan for an ideal sub
urban settlement Wayne was founded
on the frmest of foundations and has
fourished in a manner calculated TO
cause the proverbial bay tree 10 wither
with envy.
The inhabitants Of Wayne number
several thousand and are all inordinate-
ly proud of being Wayneites. They are
proud with the pride which fushes the
obsequious head salesman of the suspen-
der department when the firm recognizes
his worth and promotes him TO the dizzy
altitude Of second floOrwalker in chief,
and their pride j thorn IN the sides Of
all the surrounding settlements and less
OstentatiouS suburban stations. Most of
them-that Is, most Of the males-are wor-
tiny clerks under middle age and blessed
with wives and rapidly accommodating
olive branches, and if they are not wor-
thy clerks they are worthy In some other
line, for none but worthy persons have
ever found foOthold in Wayne, and the
breath of scandal has never smirched the
polish OF its purity. Their wives are as
typical of the quiet middle class Phila-
delphia women and girls as they them
selves are representative of the average
spotlessly conventional Philadelphia
masculine being.
Physically regarded, Wayne is as fair
to look upon as it is from moral stand.
point. 1t is an exposition of the essence of
Queen Anne III architecture, tempered
with the colonial and the other popular
forms of rural residence design which
have in the last decade run riot through
out the length and breadth of the land.
There are dark red houses and bright
red ones, there are those which are red
and green, and pink and green, and ca
nary and green, and there are orange and
white ones, and there are pearl colored
types with dove tinted trimmings. And
there are just as many unconventional
designs III shape as there are in color,
and altogether the wonderful town of
Wayne is a most satisfying spectacle tc
any one who seeketh the beautiful, the
odd or the abnormally hideous in mex
pensive but conspicuous dwellings.
Naturally such settlement is above
reproach i'll its government. 1t has
broad roads, perfectly laid, fine, broad
sidewalks, a waterworks and splendid
drainage, all of which were provided by
Messrs. Childs and Drexel, and it has a
president and council, a fire engine
equipment, an athletic club and ground
for both sexes, a debating society, q
series of winter dances, a sewing circle.
a whist club and lot of other such at
fractions provided by the residents them.
selves, and all these things are managed
without a hitch or a jar, and peace
reigns supreme from Jan. in any given
year until the hour of midnight on the
following 31st of December.
Wayne has no stores of any kind, and
of course a saloon is as foreign to its
confines as a snOwstOrm would be in al
equatorial jungle. On the other side of
the railroad there is also a Wayne
an old fashioned Revolutionary times
Wayne-named after the American gen
eral who was known as Mad Anthony
Wayne, and there may be found shops
and stores and saloons and business
offices, but in the new and beautiful
Wayne such things are unknown and
must ever be unknown unless the laws
of its organization be ruthlessly shatter-
ed and the dictates Of its title deeds ig-
nored.
Nor has it any police, but then why
should it have? No one is bad, no one is
other than faultless, the very dogs don't
bark at night, the cats remain indoors
after sunset, and policeman would be
as much out of place in Wayne as q
prizefghter at little girls paper doll
party. But the sweet sense of security
which pervades the place is not without
its insurance clause, so to speak. Even
Wayne might be invaded by reckless
tramp bent on securing square meal OF
horrible as the thought is to the Wayne
ites) by nocturnal prowler seeking tc
enter and rob happy home. And then,
too, the business hours of the day find
its adult male population away in the
city, and the women have not their nat
ural protectors at hand.
Therefore each family has huge TN
horn on which mighty blast can be
sounded as an alarm when aid is needed
TO repulse tramp or to fight the fire
fiend. At first the alarms were frequent,
because the children could not resist
testing the tin horns at unseemly hours,
but meeting of the council fixed fine
of S5 on false alarms, and now, through
the agencies of repeated spankings and
also of hanging the horns too high for
the children to reach, no more false
alarms come to startle the community.
Wayne came very near being called
Mentone, which was TO have been pro-
nounced Me-'n-tony as a pleasant recog-
milton Of the intimate friendship between
Mr.. Childs and Mr.. Drexel, but the idea
was abandoned. As it stands now it Is
I'm enduring monument to both these