The evening times., 1895-10-23
BUSINESS MEN TRIUMPH
President Phillips viii Not Tear Up
F Street During the Holidays.
1t Was Represented TO Him That
Work on the Street Would
Ruiu Fall Trade

President Phillips, of the Metropolitan
Railway, has decided that the public has
some rights, which must occasionally be
respected. In regard TO tie account pub
lished IN The Morning Times. concerning
ltne proposed construction OF the electric
road during the most active business sea
son, the officials now think that "yox
populi' must be heard.
\ delegation of citizens headed by Mr..
s. " Woodward waited on President
Phillips and have received his assurance
that The road Viii be begun AT both ends
of the line, and should tine worKmen reach
what is regarded as the business section of
+ street, the work VIII be discontinued until
early spring.
The business men appear satisfied with
this promise, particularly since IL is highly
improbable that the work viii be surfi-
ciently advanced from Capitol Hill and
Georgetown to arrive at the central localities
of street before January or February, at
the farthest.
wnI.is IL seems to be the intention of the
sub-contractors to interfere as little with
business on + street as possible, any work,
no matter OF what kind. win seriously i'm
pede business on that street from Ninth to
Fourteenth. If the rails and yokes are laid
along the street it will in u measure @ prevent
carriages from drawing up TO the curb.
This one fact in itself will, the merchants
say. be OF incalcuiable injury to the shops.
The efactthatagreatp par of the lucrative
holiday trade comes in carriages will ap-
pear as almost insignificant when 1t is
said that ladies' and children will go else
where rather than walk along a street
where rhe dust viii be flying in blinding
clouds and an unusual number OF teams con-
stantly coming and going.
Aside from the piling up OF rails, connect
ing rails, and yokes, when the excavator
get to work the earth will be thrown up
on each side OF the present tracks and most
effectually block the sidewalks from the
people who get on and off the horse ears.
In addition 10 all OF these hindranccs to
trade there will be sand sirters, mortar
boxes, stone, cement. and numberless other
things necessary to the construction OF a
street railway.
Several merchants on Ninth street say
that during the construction OF that line
their trade fell off one-half. One said that
it was directly the cause of his failure.
II this Can be taken AS an Instance of the
injury the contra actors can do in the
late spring and summer. when trade is
naturally dull, then what must be the effect
on the merchants when the holiday trade
is at its height?
The merchants along F street say that
they do not want to see the progress of
rapid transit retarded, but that they have
their own expenses to meet. They argue
that it would be just as well for the con-
tractors to start ON each end and work
toward each other, and thereby save them
a very severe loss by tearing up the street
during the holiday trade. In the petition
presented some time ago they earnestly
requested that the work along F street
from Seventh to Fourteenth be done during
the early fall, when business was not So
brisk. All they ask. and they do not think
it unreasonable, is that If the contractors
reach the street before or about Thanks
giving Day they suspend until after Janu-
airy 1.