The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-02-06
A REMARKABLE RAILROAD SYSTEM.
People Who Go to the st. Louis Conven-
ton VIII Ride In Fine Street Cars
Especial Correspondence.

finest street car system IN the world.
People who come 70 the convention next
June may be prepared TO see and enjoy
something unique in street railroad
equipment They will ride in palace
cars propelled by electricity, and they
can ride from one end of the city to am
other and around it, IL miles in all. for
cents.
St. Louis was long time waking up
TO the demand for rapid transit. can
recall the sensation it created here not
very many years ago by the report OF
the starting Of the wonderful cable cars
in Chicago. San Francisco had rapid
transit long before Chicago, and Chlca-
90 was far ahead of st. Louis. But that
should not be subject of reproach. The
plodding car horse is still a ture OF
the landscape in Washington and New
York.
When ST. Louis awoke TO the need OF
quick transit, there was a long delay
while the railway owners debated the
relative advantages of cable and electric
propulsion. A cable road was the first
started, and the opposition to the trolley
kept electricity in the background for
long time But sufficient inducements
were offered the members of the city as
sembly after a time, and franchises were
granted. Before many years the city
was gridironed with trolley lines. Bos-
toms system is more complicated and
clumsy, but it is not so farreaching in
II
Louis, the street cars are not conferred IN
one or two of the business streets Ev-
cry street leading to the business center
has one or more car lines ON it, however.
Within the city limits are $40 miles
Of single track. The stranger who comes
here to see the city from a street car
must be prepared to do a good deal OF
riding.
The gross annual receipts of the diff
ferent companies are So, 900, 900, which
would represent 100, 900, 900 passengers
carried in a year, not counting dead
heads or making allowance for children
who ride at half fare. The cent fare
prevails here everywhere, and no tickets
are sold. There is very elaborate sys-
tenn of transfers, which makes it posi-
BILE to reach almost any part of the city
from any other part for cents.
To carry these 100, 600, 600 passengers
there are 900 motor cars, 100 grip cars
and $40 "trailers. - These cars, if plac-
ed in line, would cover nearly 30 miles
of streets.
The four great systems are the Mis-
souri, railway, which controls 90 miles
of electric and 10 miles of cable road
the Lindell, which controls 60 miles of
electric; the Union Depot company.
which controls 10 miles of electric. and
the National railway, which has 43
miles of electric and 10 of cable line.
The first three are owned in st. Louis
the fourth is the property of Chicago
syndicate.
The aggregate capital of the street
railroads of the city is $21, 700, 900, and
| they have a bonded Indebtedness of
| SIT, 10000.
ST. Louis was the city which inaugu-
rated the mail Car system. 1t came from
suggestion by John B. Harlow of the
ST. Louis postoffice, now civil service
commissioner at Washington. The sys-
tenn has been in operation over lines
running north, south and west for sew
eral years. Boston took up the idea, and
now conservative New York and Wash
ington have street railway mail cars.
The express car system was intro
duced first on St. Louis railways. Ar
express car now runs on a fixed schedule
from South ST. Louis to the heart of the
city, and before summer comes all the
lines in the city will probably be doing
an express business. In time, no doubt
the delivery system of the shops will be
revolutionized. Delivery cars will bt
loaded with bundles for different sec
tions, and delivery wagons will cover
short routes from general warehouse.
in these sections.
The first street car ambulance wa.
built in st. Louis and used over the Un
ion Depot lines from the center of the
city to the City hospital. 1t was equip
ped with every necessary appliance fol
performing surgical operation, if nee
essary, en- route. The railway company
built this car and operated it for time
but it is out of use just now because thu
city made no provision for paying oper
ating expenses or putting in switches a
the hospital grounds.
The funeral car is a novelty, founded
on the French funeral train, which ha
| had some serious consideration. Inc Cd
lection to it hes in the fear that the line
running to the cemetery might become
known as the funeral line - The flu
neral car has been planned-a combina
ton car, with place for the corpse IL
front and seats for the mourners behind
Such a car could be switched from on
end of the city to another from track t.
track 1t would cheaper funerals abOu
one-haf.
The living and not the dead are tn
chief solicitude of the companies now
however, and st. Louis people have rea
son to congratulate themselves. TIL
cars on almost all the lines are MOUNTED
on heavy springs, and they ride witt
the ease of a railroad coach. They ar
equipped with double seats of wicke
on each side of broad aisle, and i'll tn
winter months they are warmed b.