The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-26
ON THE BROADWAY
CABLE CARS.
THE EXCITING DRAMA ENACTED
DAILY ON NEW YoRTz's STREETS.
Dramnfis Personae-TT,e Gripman,
the Conductor, the Passenger and
an Occasional Yruc3lnala.
BY STEPHEN CRANE.


would have had commissions if any
ones had proposed to lay impious rails
on his sacred thoroughfare. At the
present day, they by force of color
and numbers almost dominate the
great street, and the eye of even an old
New Yorker is held by these long yell
low monsters which prowl intently up
and down, up and down, in a mystic
search.
In the grey of the morning they come
out CT 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 tn.9r-
mometer which is attached to a con-
ductor's temper is steadily rising, ris-
ing, and the bEssful time arrives
| when everybody hangs to a strap and
stands on his neighbours toes Ten
o clock comes to New York and the
Broadway cars, as well as elevated
cars, horse cars and ferry boats innu-
meralble, heave signs Of relief. They
have flied lower New York with
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 in split seconds. He has come
to the crisis in his days agony. He
is now to be overwhelmed with femin-
inc shoppers. They all are going to
give him two dollar bills to change.
They are all going to threaten to re
port him. He passes his hand across
his brow and curses his beard from
black to grey and from grey to black.
Men and women have different ways
of hailing a car. A man-if he be not
an old choleric gentleman who owns
not this road but some other road
throws up a tinid finger and appears
to believe that the king of Abyssinia
is careering past on his war chariot
and only his opinion of other peoples
Americanism keeps him from deep sa-
laans The grip-man usually jerks
his thumb over his shoulder and indi-
Gates the next car, which is three
miles away. Then the man catches
the last platform, goes into the car,
climbs upon someone's toes, opens his
morning paper and is happy.
When a woman halls a car there is
no question about it's being the king
of Abyssinia's war chariot. She has
bought the car for 1898. The conductor
owes his position to her and the grip
mans mother does her laundry. No
captain in the Royal Horse Artillery
ever stops his battery from going
through a stone house in a way to
equal her manner of bringing that car
back on it's launches. Then she walks
leisurely forward and after scanning
the step to see there is mud upon it
and opening her pocket book to make
sure Of a two dollar bill, she says: do
you give transfers down Twenty eighth
street?' ~
Sometimes the conductor breaks the.
bell strap when he pulls it under these
conditions. Then as the car goes on he.
moves forward and DULLES some person
who had nothing to do with the af-
fair
The car sweeps. on it's diagonal path.
| through the TendSrloin, with it's hotels,
its theatres. its Bower shops, its 10000,
600 actors who pIayed with Booth and
Barrett. It passes Madison square and
enters the gorge made by the towering
walls of great shops It sweeps around
the double curve at Union square and
Fourteenth street, and a life insurance
agent falls in a. fit as the uncontrolled
car dashes over the crossing, narrowly
missing three old ladies, two cid gen.
! tlemen, a newly married couple, a
sandwich man, a Ilewsboy and a dog.
At Grace church the conductor has an
alteration with g. brave and reckless
passenger. who boards him in his own
car, and at Canal street he takes dire
vengeance by tluhbling a drunken man
onto 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 postofice
the car goes. with the gripnan getting
advice, admondtion. personal comment,
and invitation to fight from the drivers
until Battery park appears at the foot
of the slope, and as the car goes Sc
dately around the curve, the Furnished
shield of the bay shines through the
trees.
1t is a great ride, full of exciting &C
ton. Those inexperienced persons who
have been merely chased by Indians
know little of the dramatic quality
which life may hold for them. These
jungles of men and vehicles, these can
yons eff streets. these lofty mountains
of iron and cut stone--a ride through
them affords plenty of excitement And
no lone panther's howl is more serious
in intention than the howl of the lone
| truclS-driver when the cable-car bumps
one of his rear wheels.
Owing to the strange humor of the
gods that make our comfort, sailor
! hats with broad brinlS come into vogue
whenever we are all engaged in hang
ing to cable car straps There is only
one more serious combination known to
! science. but a trial of it is at this day
/; impossible. OF course if a troop of
EliZabethan courtiers in large rufus
should board a cable car the conplica-
ton would be very awe9ome one and
the profanity would be in old English,
but very inspiring. However, the COM
! bination of wide-brimned hats and
I crowded cable cars is tremendous in its
power to cause acute misery to the pa
! tent New York public.
! Suppose you are in a, cable car,
| clutching FOR life and family q. creak-
! ing strap from overhead. At your
shoulder is a little dude in a very wide
! brimgned hat with a red band If you
/ were in your senses you would recog-
! nize this flaming band as an omen Gu
blood. But you are not in your senses;
| you are in a Broadway cable car. You
! are not supposed to have any senses.
From the forward end you hear the
gripnlan uttering sfrill whoops and
running over citizens. Suddenly the
car comes to a curve. Making swift
running START it turns three hand
springs, throws a cart wheel for luck,
/ bounds into the ain. hurls six passen-
gers over the nearest building and
/ comes down astraddle of the track
/ That is the wav in which we turn
curves in New York.
Meanwhile, during the cars gamhol-
! ing, the corrugated rim of the dude s
hat has swept naturally across your
neck, and It has left nothing for YOUR
head to do but to quit your shoulders.
AS the car rears ycq,r head falls into
the waiting arms of the proper autlor-
tiles. The dude is dead: everything Is
dead The interior Of the car resanl-
HES the scene of the battle of Wounded
aI1t icTfn r.