Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-04-25

Side-A " onderful scene.
| 7 UST as summer ram begins with
big drops out of half clear sky,
| so the rush to BROOKLYN sets il
! around the New York end of th,
| East River bridge on every WORK -day
cgening. The gaping nav of the bridge
has been at work laz ly during the after
noon sucking in a few stragrlcrs and
| 'lrpwing out little squlls OF fo.l from
| TIC trains that run belini il. But wael
| five c cock comes the drops Of tie aY-
preaching tempest os humanity THAI IS 70
| storm the place like a revolutionary mol
around a EIstiIle begin 70 ap,eIr IN
PrintinS-house Square. T5ey cone faster,
| ami run to Ietner in Little r.vu.cts u
PARK Row, down Chatham street, a'ont
i Centre street, and across the C,gy Hal
| Parl-all turned one way, all streaming
| toward the bridge. Even then they
| give no warning OF what is to come, ex.
| cept to those who know that the tori ent
is as certain to develop AMI as sure to
become tremendous as that tidal bore
which daily swclls the Sigueuay with its
overwhelming flood.
thicker. They splash in sudden numbers
from the nearby Office buildings aad the
horse cars. The little strc ms now
lengthen out, and from far up and down
the streets and across the park in Broad
way. 1t is ) O'Clock, and the Offices in
the buildings that hold villagefuls are
closing. 1t is no longer u sprinkle.
| 1t is shower. Farther and farther
away the human drops mingle; bigger
grow the converging streams. At half
past five the wholesale stores and the
warehouses are closing. 1t is a torrent
row. At six the factories and the work
shops thrust myriad toilers upon the
streets. The very clouds of the city'z
humanity appear to have gathered over
| one spot. The usual confines no longer
hold the two.legged drops which now
| jostle one another of the sidewalks, into
the cutters, out upon the roadways, all
| over the parks asphaltum. The outlook
from the upper stories Of the neighbor-
| hood Is upon sea Of people, in Groves
| like wild cattle, coming ~ as if out of
! the earth from every direction, pusainr,
| hurrying, covering every open space like
an hour passes, aud the elevated trains,
which come like breathing, absorb half
the crowd so fast that the station stairs
become as the beds OF inverted cataracts
up which the dark torrent climbs resist
lesslv. The horse oars fIJm both dIreC-
tions stop AMI discharge people as guns
are wheerol up, fired, and dragged
away on a battlefield. 1t is cloudburst,
and it has made mill race-something
far bigger than thGt-the swollen drain
of human freshet.
Thirty thousand men, women aud
children are in the torrent, thirty thou
sand pedestrians in a ninety minute down
pour; for though the rush is between
five o'clock and seven, it is thinned at
both ends, and the bulk of it is COM
pressed in a period of between sixty and
ninety minutes. This is not counting
the almost equal numbers that seek the
elevated cars. The surging black waves,
white-capped with human faces, hurl
themselves against the granite steps that
lead to the yawning iron throat of the
bridge and spread over them. There Is
no more sign OF individual motion than
there is in the herds of sheep that one
looks down upon from the Colorado
Mountains when the droves are moving
along the valleys like floating brown isl.
ands, as clouds move against the sky.
Overhead on a treStle that crosses from
the City Hall PARK, another black cur
rent, from the stcam-cars, keeps pace
with the tide below. In that way the
exodus TO Brooklyn moves over every
thing ahead of it, as if, were the bridge
10 fall, the people would still keep
straight on, filling the river, and press
ing forward upon the unlermost bodies.
We read about the European capitals.
treated with the skill of artists, clothed
with the glamour of tradition, and col
ored by the fancy that grows richer
with the distance of its subject. But
what has London to show Ike that
daily congestion at the Brooklyn Bridget
What crowds in Paris are to be meas
ured with this? What E Iropean city has
even one of the many strange conditions
that produce this scene? Here come the
elevated railways that carry three.
quarters of million souls day, the
surface vehicles Of the million and six
hundred thousand people Of Manhattan,
the streets leading from the densest pop
ulation in America, all meeting in one
little square, all pouring out people, and
all the people streaming into a great
trumpetlike mouth of iron in order to
be shot across a hanging cobweb of
metal threads into city that has not its
mate or counterpart on earth-Brooklyn
It is like city in some things. 1t is a
vast aggregation of homes and 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. And every
other city earns its own way, while
Brooklyn works for New YORK, and
and is paid off like a shop girl on Satur-
day nights.
"Stop showing sop "Look out who
you're pushingv' "Don't try to run over
me, I say" These are notes from the
chorus of the solid mass of persons that
crowd up the stairs to the bridge cars.
On the upper platform the train sweep
away regiments at time. Burly bridge
policemen are there urging every one
forward, aud at times-until the news
papers cry out, periodically-putting
their hands on their betters and wedging
them into the cars, through three doors
at once, as revolvers 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
taey are packed with people so that you
can only see the rims Of the decks as you
see the edge Of grocer's measure that
has been filled with pease. - as, Ens
bic bridge hurt the business OF the ferry
companies, but after a while it built up
a surplus and paid them back, just as
our elevated roads in time increased the
traffic OF the horse cars. In word,
then, everything that is going to Brook
lyn at Gightfall is crowded. That is