The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-03-15
A MATTER OF STREETS.

81 think the city council should put
signs on the street corners, naming the
streets" said hotel clerk TO the Here
and There" man last night. ut should
have been done long, long aGo-and
maybe II was done, long, long ago-but
/ suppose the oldest inhabitants man
age TO find their neIghbors when they
want TO visit them, hence don't feel the
Inconvenience that strangers DO when
they start out In quest Of an unknown
street. Now. my business as a hOteI
clerk often calls me to direct Il stranG-
Ell 10 some street. and Il makes me teel
ashamed OF my city when he returns as
mad as a hornet. and by the use OF some
unprlntable emphatic words, tells me
that he couldn't find the street. HIS
wrath is natural, for towns much small
er than Wheeling have the names OF
their streets neatly painted on the cor
ners."
Just Imagine the case OF German
speaking citizen OF Columbus who was
in the city the other day 10 look up
friend on Jacob street. He asked me
where the street was. but did not mem
tlon the number, expecting to ma H.
| suppose, when he found the street IN
half hour he came back. The l9eeS
took on a sulphurlc atmosphere as he
walked in the door: in fact the air was
as highly tinged with red and blue as
stephen Crane could make IT.
"MeIn Gott!" he gasped. when ms
other words had played out, you 4fit
me to go TO Yawcob street, und-beIoTe
l get to my number, l pretty nearly walk
into de- creek. Ven l get pack, q pCy
tells me my number vas across de creek
don't see holdings over dere but null;
BImcpv ! 20 across q bridge you call
Market street, und ask a man where
| Yawcob street Is, und he tells me TO go
| 10 Twenty second street und climb de
hill. walk along und along lookin' for
| Twenty-second street and never sees II
painted UP on de corners; gets down TO
| de market house. which looks Ike two
streets. den gets madt. und gets poy
| TO prlng me pack up here
THE German'7 case IL not the most
ridiculous / have seem" said the clerk,
after he had told man the difference
between eastern time and standard
time, but It's the most recent rake
state convention In Wheeling, with peo-
pie from outside towns looking for their
friends, and you can judge OF their
lIOuDleEs n EllttA AlAthN ~ go o.
puzzler IL Eoir street, which the visitor
naturally lmagines Is pronounced like
For street. 1t is hard to understand
that Jacob and l:off streets on the south
side Of the creek. are combinations OF
the streets OF the same name on the
north side. But what Is harder for
them to understand Is, that the streets
have no names on them, while they do
have numbers"
Council should make an appropria-
ton for naming the streets. II will not
be solely for the benefit OF strangers:
there are hundreds Of citizens who cant
tell you the names OF streets crossing
the main ones. For example, North
Wheeling man probably couldn't tell
where Forty-second street was unless
he remembered the street car junction
Of tracks Mt Forty-third: and ask
South Slider whore Coal street is, and he
wants a stoGle for All answer"
How much longer the clerk would
have continued In this strain Is uncer-
tain. but rs the scribe started on TO COM
plete his midnight rounds, he add
ed: There's a laurel wreath behind this
desk for the councilman who pushes the
street-naming scheme TO a finish"