St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-09-27
a USE FOR OLD sTREEr-CARs.

Td1t11ul, WOTn-Oul SlIeel-CdI NOISES,
but never yet has newspaper
stated where the old street-cars go
to. Ask Brighton people. The back
yards out there are full of them, and
every day their number IS increasing.
Strangers cannot understand how
so many of the cars have got off the
track. 1t seems to them if there
must have been a tidal wave which
washed all the Cambridge cars into
the next town. There the Cam
bridge Railroad" is stranded, its
coaches cast high and dry against
hills and into holIows.
What was to be done with old
cars? the street-railroad compa nies
asked themselves. 1t would cost
more to split them up than they
would fetch for kindling. But Cam
bridge has a bright man named
Sturtevant. While the West end
was wondering if it would not be the
] cheapest way to take the cars out
by the shipload and dump them in
some place where they would not in
9 terfere with Navigation, he stepped
q in and bid for thirty-six of them. He
got thirty six. Then he adroitly put
one in the back yard of a friend in
q Brighton and told the children they
might use it Tor a playhouse. The
children were "tickled about to
death" They sat up nights to use
the car, and never did the advance
coach OF Barnum' circus or Sarah
4 Bernhardt'S car attract more atten-
q ton. The little folks came for miles
s. and peered through the pickets OF
the fence. Then they went home and
teased for a street car, and kept
right on teasing. That first car was
g like the first boys bicycle in an out
q of-the-way town; it created a de-
b mand. In few days Mr.. Sturtevant
began to make sales. 1t got so at
last that when people ordered them
Mr.. Sturtevant would ask uncon-
sciously, How many" as if he
were selling eggs.
People with a large number of
children found that they must have
several; and now one can tell about
how many young ones Brighton
men have got by counting the cars
in his yard and allowing three chill
dren to each car. Mothers found
they could put their small children
inside and, shutting the doors. leave
them with feeling of security. 1t
was the cheapest way, too, in many
cases TO provide shade. The cars
could be secured for So apiece,
while not much stock was to
be bought from the nurseries
for that money. Then also it
was necessary to wait for trees to
grow, aud by the car method a
whole nursery was forthcoming. So
the cars were secured, dragged by
8 horses into back yards, and the
q trucks removed from under them.
4 Then the brakes were taken off, and
now there they lie like dismantled
ships, and like a ship something of
sentiment clusters around them. At
s. first they were thought of only as
q pIayhouses. One purchaser con-
j Guided to turn his into a henhouse.
Another is a contractor, and pays his
men every Saturday night from the
old car. Another, Kendrick street
man, has fixed up his as a carpenter
shop for his boy. One woman in
Cambridge wanted to buy ten cars,
and wheeling them down to the sea-
shore, convert them into cottages
and bath houses, shifting their posi-
ton with the tide. She thought
that two or more could be joined
together, one to be used for a Sleep
ing car. But the owners of the
beach would not sell her land for
this purpose.
The contractor before mentioned
is building a basement under one OF
his cars and is painting 1T. He talks
of putting a railing round the top
and buying a few flowers, SO that he
can have a roof-garden. More than
one car has been pre-empted for
Nocturnal purposes. The ca is find them
a glorious place to snooze while the
wind plays gently with the quaint
old dimity curtains. One boy has
converted half of his car into dove
house. The BARRIERS and Chinese
laundrymen are now after cars, but
the supply is running short. If they
cannot get any they say that they
NAV buy watering carts and put
windows in them. One of the play
houses is used during the evenings as
a club house by children of a larger
growth. The lamps are handy, and
when a light is necessary the blinds
are pulled up to shut off the sight NJ
card-plaving. One other has rugged
up a cord running from the house &c
the bell in the car and can call hel
offspring without moving. Severa
mothers have taken the straps out
of the cars and are using them to ex
cellent advantage. Some of the cars
have colored glass, gothic-shapec
windows, and it is rumored that the
Salvation Army wants one for {
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