The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-07-26
Impressions Of a Frequent Rider Upon
These Popular Metropolitan Vehicles.
SKETCHES OF OFFICIALS AND RIDERS
Conductor Is Monnrch OF All He Sur.
veys until the Feminine Passenger
Makes Him Rcn,ize thns he Is ON.
~ Mortal Narrow Escapes from
Death or Injury Pass Unnoticed.

1
would have had commissions IL any one
had proposed to lay impious rails on his
sacred thoroughfare At the present
day they. by force of color and num-
DerS. almost dominate the great street
and the eye of even an old New Yorker
| Is held by these long. yellow monsters
which prowl intently up and down, up
and down, in a mystic search
In the grey of the morning they come
out of the uptown, bearing janitors,
porters, all that class which carries the
| keys to set alive the great downtown.
Later they shower clerks. Later still
they shower more clerks. And the Their
mometer, which IS attached to con-
ductor's temper, is steadily rising, rising
| and the bllssful time arrives when
everybody hangs Ia a strap and stands
on his neighbours toes. Ten o'clock
| comes to New York and the Broadway
cars, Us well as elevated cars. horse cars
| and ferry boats innumerable, heave
signs of relief. They have filed lower
| New York with n vast army of men,
who will chase to and fro and amuse
| themselves until almost night fall
| The cable cars pulse drops to normal.
| But the conductors pulse begins now
to beat I'm split seconds. He has come
to the crisis in his days agony. He is
shoppers. They all Ore going to give
him two dollars TO dhange. They all
are going to threaten to report him. He
passes his hand across his brow and
| curses MS Dreau from DlocR 10 grey
| and from grey to black.
| Men and women have different ways
| of mailing u car. a man-if he be not
an old choleric gentleman, who owns
not this road, but some other road,
| throws up a tmid finger and appears
to believe that the King OF Abyssinia
is careerng past on his war chariot and
only his opinion of other peoples Ameri-
| canism keeps him from deep salasms.
The gripman usually jerks his thumb
| hi cl,n nrtH mr. fnn 10 M
| car. which is three miles away. Then
the man catches the last platform, goes
into the car, climbs upon some ones
toes. opens his morning paper and is
happy.
| When a woman halls car there is no
question of its being the King of Abys
| sinia's war-chariot. She has bought the
car for $39S. The conductor owes his po-
| sition to her. and the gripmans mother
| does her laundry. No captain in the
Royal Artillery ever stops his battery
from going through q stone house in
| way to equal her manner of bringing
that car back on Its launches. Then
| she walks leisurely forward and after
scanning the step to see IL there Is mud
upon 1t and opening her pocket book
to make sure of two-dollar bill. she
says: DO you give transfers down
| Twenty-eighth street,"
Sometimes the conductor breaks the
bell strap when he pulls At under these
he moves forward and DULLES some pr
| son who had nothing to do with che
| affair.
The car sweeps on Its diagonal path
| through the Tenderloin with its hotels,
| Its theatres it's fower-shops its ], 900 900
actors. who played With Booth and Bar
rett. II Iasse; Madison Square and en-
ters the gorge made by the towering
| walls of g:eat shops. 1t sweeps around
the double curve at Union Square and
| Fourteenth street. and a life insurance
| agent falls In a tit as the uncontrolled
car dashes over the crossing, narrowly
missing three old ladies, two old gentle
| men. newly married couple. q sand
witch man, newsboy. and dog. At
| Grace Church the conductor has an
| alteration with a brave and reckless
| passenger who boards him in his own
! car. and at Canal street he takes dire
vengeance by tumbling a drunken man
on to the pavement. Meanwhile the
| gripman has become involved with
| countless truck-drivers and inch by inch
foot by foot, he fights his way to City
! Hall Park. On past the postofTice the
car goes with the Eripman getting adj
| vice, admonition, PERSONAL comment
| and invitation to fight from the drivers
unit! Battery Park appears at the foot
of the slope and as the car goes sedate-
ly around the curve, the Furnished
shield OF the bay shines through the
| trees
II is great ride. full of exciting action.
Those inexperienced persons who have
been merely chased by Indians know lit
| tile of the dramatic quality which life
may hold for them. These jungles of
men and vehicles, these canons of streets.
these lofty mountains of iron and cut
stone-a tide through tn sun affords plen-
~ of excitement. And no lone pantiher's
howl Is more serious in intention than
the howl of a lone truck driver when the
cable car bumps one of his hind wheels.
Owing to a strange humor of the gods
that make our comfort. sailor hats with
wide brlms come into vogue whenever
we are all engaged I'M hanging to cable
car straps. There is only one more Sc
rious combination known to Science but
! trial OF 1t Is at this day Impossible.
or course If troop OF Elizabethan cour-
tiers in large rufus should board n cable
car the complication would be very
awesome one and that profanity would
be in old English. but very inspiring.
However, the combination of wide brim-
med hats and crowded cable cars is ire
nendous In It's power 10 cause acute mis-
cry TO the patient New York public.
suppose you are in q cable car. clutch
Ing for life and family, creakins stnp
from overhead. At your shoulder Is a
little dude in a very wide br.mmed straw
hat with red band. If you were in your