The record-union., 1897-10-17
A CITY UNDERGROUND.
STRANGE THINGS BENEATH A
MODERN METROPOLIS.
Vaults, Subways, Sewers and Pipes
Full Of Interest-Cave DWELL
ers Of the Future.

Work was begun a few days ago on
the underground system Of pneumatic
tubes, which is to convey mail matter
between New York and Brooklyn Post
offices. Thus another network Of pipes
and conduits will be added to the great
maze which already underli4s the streets
of the metropolis. This is a side OF mod
ern urban DEVELOPMENT which is little
appreciated. Ten years ago the under
ground city meant nothing more than
few sewer pipes, gas and water mains
Now it is made Up of labyrinth oI
pipes and passages, vaults and store
rooms, where telephone, telegraph, cleo
trio light wires and a hundred other de-
vices are hidden away.
Could one take off the lid, so to
speak. of a great city, the sight thereby
revealed would be to most persons sur
prising one The bewildering maze of
conduits, mains, pipes and tubes OF
every size and running in all directions
is not attractive to the eye, but it forms
most instructive object lesson on the
utilitarian luxury Of twentieth century
existence Take lower Broadway in
New York as an example that may be
nearly duplicated in the most crowded
part of any other great city. The CEN
tral portion of the street is taken up by
the cables running in opposite direc
tiOns in the iron-vaulted passages. On
either side of these are the subways, one
containing telephone and telegraph
wires, the other burglar alarm, electric
light and power wires and others of
high tension. Further down. nearer the
curb, are the water mains and sewers,
one on either side, and these are closely
fanked by the vaults which run out as
far as the sidewalk extends. and, in
many cases even further. The inter
stices are filed with gas mains, steam
pipes and other conduitS of small size
So closely do they lie that there is
scarcely a foot of free soil within the
limits of the street and it seems be-
yond possibility to squeeze in another
tbree-inch pipe. Here, beneath the
thousands of feet that hurry hither and
thither all day long. pass the messages
that control the operations Of the great
marts the power that turns the wheels
of modern business, the news that you
will read in to-morrow's paper; here is
concealed much of the mechanism on
which depend the outward and visible
glories Of the modern metropolis, with
its lofty buildings and magnificent pro-
portions.
Nor is the underground city lacking
in the attractive element of human ac-
tivfty. Beneath the echoing streets of
the modern city hundreds of men are
daily engaged in earning their living.
and. although their work attracts little
attention. it is of the greatest import
ance to the health and convenience of
their fellows on the surface. Take the
al. tloo fr,- eaYa
pie. To speak of sewer cleaning may
seem a paradoxical combination of
words but it is a fact that in the up
to-date city the sewers are kept even
more neat than te streets above, and
are worth visit if one goes prepared.
AT WORK IN THE SEWERS.
Entering from a convenient manhole,
one is at first overcome by the dark
ness. After a while, however, the eyes
become accustomed to the deep gloom.
Here and there are odd-looking figures,
clad in rubber from the feet uo. squat
ting in the passageway One hand of
each figure wields a long broom, with
which the walls are brushed, while the
other carries a scoop to convey the ac-
cumulations from the bottom of the
stream to a big wooden bucket. When
the bucket is full it is dragged back to
the nearest opening, hoisted to the sur
face. and hauled away in carts. 1t is the
hardest kind of labor, and uses uD the
workman rapidly but nothing has yet
heen devised to take his place. The
laborers usually work in gangs Of three
each. half a day in and half a day out,
for a man could not work all day in the
cramped position that he is compelled TO
assume underground. Many attempts
have been made to build machines that
Will do this work but they have all
proved to be failures when put to Drac-
tical test and the tons upon tons OF
accumulation that are removed every
year are all taken out by hand. Strange
things these workers come across some
times. Now it is a child's toy lost IN
play, again coin carelessly dropped by
some Dasserby in the street above, at
another time a watch thrown away By
a sneakthief in his flight, and occa-
sionally the evidence of a still darker
crime.
one of the most interesting portions
of the underground town consists of the
subways. in which the electric wires are
conveyed beneath the ground. These are
among the newest members of the un-
derground community. 1t is scarcely
five years since beginning was made
in removing the network of overhead
wires that stretched above all our great
cities. and yet in many Of them this
maze Of millions of miles of wire has
all disappeared, although the work that
IT did is carried on as well as ever.
CLEANING SUBwAYS WITH COM
PRESSED AIR.
The task of keeping clean the iron
oipe passage known as the subways has
been greatly s7mpIified by the introduc-
tion of compressed air in the form
known as the pneumatic blower. The
blower drives strong current OF air
through the pipes, and so prevents ac-
cumulations on their walls. The great
danger in the mana cement of electric
subways has always been from the ex-
plosions of gas. There were many ac-
cidents Of this kind, in which work
men were killed or injured, and II
seemed impossible TO prevent them, as
the gas mains are always in a leaky
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