The daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1892-1897, 1896-01-28
LONDON UNDERGROUND ROADS.
Disagreeabis to Travel on and Pay Poor
Dividends.


LONDON UNDERGROUND ROADS.
Dfsagreeabls to Travel on and Pay Poor
Dividends.
John Fowler, with a small syDdi-
cate as his backerS, laid down 43
years ago an underground line of
railway from Paddington station of
the Great Western railway to a point
near Kings Cross of the Great
| Northern, thus joining those two
great streams of traffic. 1t was not,
however, until 90 years later that
the real basis of the present system
was laid down by the Metropolitan
Railway company. This was what
is now known as the Inner circle"
Some time afterward the Metropoli-
tan District Railway company was
formed, and the scheme then became
of more comprehensive character.
Neither of these companies has
benefited its shareholders to any
Rppreciable degree. The Metropoli-
tan commenced paying 5 per cent
dividend, but this dwindled down to
3 rs in 1889 and has remained about
that figure since. The Metropolitan
District company never paid any
| thing but fraction and since 1888
| has paid no dividend whatever. The
nominal capital of the Metropolitan
| is $5S, 425, the number of miles in
work being 38. The gross receipts
average $500, 600, 400. and the net re-
ceipts 81, 964, 600. The working OK
penses per mile amount to 81, 500,-
600, while the revenue per mile is
S91, 10. AS for the District COM
pany, its nominal capital is only
$36, $40 and its length of way 10
miles. Its gross receipts average
81, 9s5, 900 and its net receipts ST.
o36, 600.
The discomforts and dangers Of
this means of locomotion can never
be estimated by any one who has
not made trip on the underground.
At such central stations as Cover
street, where the traffic is great and
the rails are laid down more than 80
feet below the earth's surface, it is
impossible to breathe without i'll eff
fects. There is no adequate outlet
for the volumes of sulphurous smoke
which pour from the tunnels as the
trains pass through, and ACCORDING
" the station is filled with noxious
fumes. Even in the hottest wealth ar
it is better to keep the windows of
the railway carriages closed, but
when the carriage is crowded, as at
certain times of the day it always is,
TO excess, this is obviously impossi-
BILE. Leading medical experts have
! given it as their distinct opinion
that the underground railways have
been directly the cause of large
number Of new diseases. Those who
| constantly use the underground, )"
for so the lines of both companies
are fan. 'arly alluded to, develop all
ments of the heart or lungs, while
the eyes also frequently become seri-
ously affected. To the stranger the
effect of a journey on either the Met
ropolitan or District railway is sin
gularly painful. 1t produces head
ache and nausea and affects the
chest and lungs in a marked degree.
To a stranger the difficulties of
travel by the underground are al
most insuperable. The lines are laid
down in circles. Thus there are an
inner, a middle and an outer circle
The inner circle embraces the city
proper and runs from Aldgate round
to Aldgate again. But it Is on the
outer circle that the uninitiated
traveller is most likely to go wrong.
He may be within five or ten min
utes' walk of the point he desires to
arrive at, and not knowing this he
goes to the Metropolitan or District
railway and asks if he can book for
such and such a station. The clerk
always replies that he can, and the
unlucky wight is put on board a
tr. in which will carry him round
the whole Metropolitan area and
take an hour in the doing of it
Chicago Times-Herald.