The sun., 1897-04-28
ELEVATED ROAD STAMPED.

moments at lunch and were then driven
| rapidly away.
ELETATED ROAD STAMPED.
People Rode on tho Motors and Tenders when
They Couldn't Get Indoors.
The railroads We'd with ono another to see
which could dump tho most people into New
York in the briefcst space OF time. Specials fol-
| lowed one another into the depots in Jersey City
as fast as safety would allow. Men. women, and
children. laden with lunch boxes and the shawls
| and wraps which the stiff breezes OF the morning
indicated made n rush for the ferry boats as fast
| as the putting specials released them, and, once
on this side, joined In tho endless string of peo-
| pie which pressed on uptown by every available
means. Long-distance trims AZ we'll as the
suburban brought in sightseers, and tho
| trolley cars from the Jersey towns and villages
! he!pc' 20 increase the human cargoes on the
| ferryboats.
| It was the same at tho east side of the city.
Brooklyn and the Long Island towns and villages
were emptied for the day. Everybody wanted to
| come early, SO everybody came at once. The
| ferryboats were jammed, the bridge manage
mont ran trains on tho rush hour schedule with.
out relieving the pressure to any visible extent
Women and children. we'll as men, footed
1t across the promenade, despite the small
| cyclone which was blowing in their faces, and
landed in New York badly rumpled, but glad to
be here at all.
The discomforts of getting here didn't seem to
| make anybody unhappy. The lack of adequate
facilities after they got here was little harder
to take. 1t Is many years since New York has
undertaken to act host to such an array of
people. All the preparation in the world would
not have sufficed to improve the elevated SER
vice. There is a limit to the carrying capacity
OF even that great system, and it was reached
yesterday before more than two.thirds of the
host that wanted to get uptown had made a
start.
From railroad standpoint this influx of
people was disappointing. That means that all
Of the specials all of tho extra cars on regular
trains, and all the regular trains were not
jammed with people Nevertheless. more people
came to town between 10 o'clock Monday night
and 10 o'clock yesterday morning than ever be-
fore descended upon the city in twenty-four
hours. or course, the real jam did not begin
before 9 o'clock yesterday morning. The greater
part Of the people coming in were not of the
class to whose purses a night at a city hotel
makes any difference. They went to bed early.
got up early. and rolled into town, laughing and
happy, despite the raw winds and tho rather
threatening clouds.
The officials of the New York Central Rail.
road expected to break all of their previous
records yesterday. For nearly week now they
have been bringing crowds TO New York for the
celebration. but yesterday they started innumer-
able specials from points all along the roads.
The result was rather disappointing. There
were three sections OF No. "a. the early train
from Poughkcepsie. and they came in almost
empty. III was the same with the other specials
while the extra cars on the regular trains were
UNNECESSARY.
I'VE were rather surprised at the number of
people who came to town" said an official Of the
road to SUN reporter. "0f course there was
1t would be, It was small. ii was not Within 80
Per cent; Of our expectations. and we could have
hhSndiod pa 1t our regular service
modern service Be- MAJ made ' fSe fSelSes seai
by the fact that hundreds Of people along our
lines have been coming in daily. There was a
both the local and through trains, and the South.
WESTERN limited was crowded with people from
The Erie road ran specials from Port Jeryis
and an to.d Goshen and troop trains from Newburg.
points along their line. The trains We're o ali
crowded and the traffic was up to expectations.
Al the trains got i4 on time and the troops had
70 FORM INTO limo lcisurey and march to the
side streets to which they had been assigned.
l Tho Delaware. Lackawana and Western and
Of tho Jersey Central and tho smaller roads, roads
twenty-one specials between Philadelphia and
New Y9rk anu troop trains from Camden. Tren.
toh, anu ioiht f-lehSHnt. inc Long Island road
brought hundreds to tho city. Their specials
were all crowded
The crush on tho bridge was fast and furious
In the carly morning. 1t was as bad, IL not
worse, than tho old rushes at q o'clock, before
the improvements were made. Tho fact that
everybody had packages, and that there were so
many women and children, made 1t worse and
the policemen had all they could do to keep the
=, When the rush began at about $3.50 o'clock
there was one of the old time breakdowns, which,
true to custom. happened whom traffic was at
its height One OF the motor cars ran OF the
track and II took nearly an hour to repair the
promenade and the result was another crush on
that part of the bridge.
The crowds, both going mp In the morning and
coming down in the late afternoon, were entirely
too much for the elevated roads. There were
not trains enough TO convey the people, al
though they were run closely together as it
was possible 10 run them with safety All OF
the uptown stations were crowded with people |
IN int the morning The fact that people were liter
ally hanging on to the gates did not deter others
from trying 10 light their way into the cars. |
Men swarmed over the closed gates, and when |
it was an impossible feat TO get in a car they |
jumped onto the tenders and engines. Cars wcro
stopped SO long at stations that there was finally
q blockade. This blockade kept up all day lon9
The trains couldn't discharge their passengers |
at 10th street fast enough to break 1t Trains |
passengers swore over their inability either to |
get out or to get ahead. Hundreds of people who |
sHrteu from downtown at a reasonable hour |
dldn get uptown until the military portion OF |
dho parade was over. Many didn't get up at all. |
inc average time OF train from the Battery to
i2Oth street was something over two hours A
SuN reporter, coming down an u train in the |
early AFTERNOON, counted twCntynlne trains OF |
nye cars each between tifty-ninth and Twenty |
eighth street. These trains were all packed with
people and were moving along at a snail b pace.
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