The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-12
Tho Human Timetable.

W.
oddity. thoroughly authenticated, comes
from Harlem, in the case of q man whose
advocacy of the project of abolishing grade
crossings for railroads in large cities has
led to some surprising results. There has
been a marked tendency in all American
cities to avoid the changes, delays, and an
noyances incident to passage to and from
the stations of railroads running at street
grades; and in Chicago, Philadelphia, Jer-
sey City, and elsewhere the policy has been
adopted Of utilizing the second floor rather
han the first floor for embarking passen-
gers. Raised structures, usually of steel,
are provided to carry trains and obviate
some of the difficulties previously com.
planned of.
An advocate of this plan of reform in
railroad operation resides, according to the
veracious Harlem Local Reporter, in that
district of the town through which are run
the trains of those railroads having their
termini at the Grand Central Station at
Forty-second street. This citizen, an p
nent of grade crossings, lives in the neigh
borhood of the structure upon which the
railroad cars run. and the resulting noise,
Objectionable to many, is not disagreea-
BILE to him. 1t seems that he has become SO
familiar with both the running of the trains
and the time schedule that he is enabled to
discriminate between them by the vol
ume of noise made by the passing of each.
With his eyes closed and to all outward
appearance asleep, he can tell the difference,
not at a glance but at a sound wave, be.
tween the South Shore special, the Mount
Vernon accommodation, the Tuckahoe local,
the Bay State express, the Empire State
express, and the Chatham Four Corners
mixed mail and milk train.
A curious instance of the alert watchful.
ness of this Harlemite is described by the
Reporter. When, some time ago, the dam
burst at Matteawan, there was a delay of
several hours for the Boston train, and this
Harlemite, usually lulled to sleep by the
noise of the running trains, lay awake all
night, unable to woo for his tired senses so
much as a nap until the Boston express
had passed. If the reports of his observant
Harlem %neighbors are correct, and Har-
lemites are proverbially exact in their mar
rative of local occurrences, this peculiar
individual is known in and about East
125th street as "the human timetable"
One of his choicest delights, one of his
most cherished amusements, his daily
~solace, is the passing Of the Empire State
express, and he waits for 1t as the home
sick mariner does for the joyous sight of
land after a long voyage. AS the Re
porter describes it, she cannot pass into the
land of dreams until the flyer has whirled
past his apartment"
When the trains run on schedule time, as,
when outward bound, they usually do, the
human timetable Is as happy as a canary
bird in a feed store. When a train is be-
hind time, as occasionally happens with
incoming trains, he is restless, visit
full, uncertain, f%retful. and ~sleepless. The
roar and rumbling of the trains, distasteful
to many others, is balm to him. "The
Croton special is on time" he says, reposing
himself for a brief sleep until the Scars
dale special is due. If that train be on time,
he is treasured by the knowledge that
his slumbers will not be disturbed again
until the Copake accommodation rattles
along. So expert has the human time
table become in the process of auricular
differentiation that, 1t Is said In Harlem, on
the morning preceding the recent election
he observed that there was something
wrong with the Coxsaclfie service, an opin-
ion afterward corroborated by the discovery
that the mail car had been painted red.