Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1898-11-30
A LETTER FROM THE
CITY BY THE SEA.
The Camden and Atlantic
Trolley Project.
WHAT l SUCCESSFUL RAILWAY SYSTEM IS.
BUILDING OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES PROS
PEcTs-A BIG STORM BUT LITTLE
DAMAGE.

The proposed trolley line from Camden
10 this City seems to have received a set
back in the Camden City Council. To an
| outsider it looks as though the promo.
ters of the scheme were rather too much
behind the curtain. A great project des.
tined to revolutionize the methods oi
modern travel, and which would cost
millions of dollars to put into execution
does not need any dark-lantern methods
| to "bOost it." If the men behind it are
reputable, and mean business, and have
| the capital, and can command the con-
| fidence of the public, they do not need to
put forth any dummies to fool some
body.
This is busy age, and people seem in
a hurry to reach their destination when
they leave home to go somewhere, and
any scheme or device that can save a
minute or two in fifty or sixty mile
trip is eagerly sought after. Any man,
or company of men, who can land fifty
thousand passengers q day here, in the
Summer time, ten or fifteen minutes
ahead of the present schedules, need not
go begging long for all the financial help
needed to float the project. But it is
one thing to exploit it on paper, and
talk glibly of millions of dollars as if they
were only marbles, and it is quite
another thing to build great road, con-
struct bridges and terminals, and equip
the whole outfit with better buildings,
and give travellers better service than
they already have.
A great and successful railway system
is the growth of years, slow develop
ment requiring the best thought, genius,
patience, care and caution of thousands
of men. Speed and safety is made pos
sible only by the united efforts of the
best brains in every branch of railroad
work. Men must grow up together in
the business and thoroughly understand
each other in order to make success of
it. 1t amuses me when read Of what a
half dozen unknown men seriously tell
the public they are going to do,
and how great railway-electric if you
please-can be designed, built, equipped
and run. 1t seems like some genius of
the Arabian Nights who is to stretch
out his wand, and 10, a great railroad
springs into existence, as if by magic.
With all due Difference to these glib
trolley projectors, submit that a rail-
way system does not pop out like
Jack in the Box. and capture the public
confidence at the first pop. 1t must be
demonstrated to very large number of
people that better road-bed and rolling
stock has been provided, better and COM
modious stations, better train service,
polite and more efficient officials, safer
engineers, better appliances tor protect
ing human life from accident, quicker
time and cheaper fares, before the great
masses of travellers will leave their old
routes and seek tie newer one, Only
when all that is absolutely assured can
new corporation expt ct to divert much
of our immense travel from its present
lines. What have outlined would re-
quire the services of hundreds of the
most expert railroad men in the country,
and even then they would fall short of
their full capabilities on account of lack
of concerted work and experience.
To talk of putting into operation such
q system as the Pennsylvania or the
Reading has furnished between here and
Camden, in few months, is all rot. 1t
cannot be done, and probably none
know that fact better than the "promo-
ters" of the trolley road, whoever they
may be. l am always suspicious of these
gigantic enterprises that are to come
upon us like fash of a meteor-for they
are not founded on solid business princi-
ples-and when we are told that the al
most impossible can be quickly achieved
by, well, we don't know who, / generally
chalk down the project as purely spec
ulative one. If had money to burn, as
most newspaper writers have, | should
like to bet some filthy lucre that the
cross-state trolley road won't be in op-
GRAFTON before July 1st, and that the
promoters of it have not got four
million dollars in ready cash where they
can put their fingers upon it. Still that
is what we are expected to believe in
addition to the fairy tales concerning
tasks of construction and equipment
that would tax the ability of the best
men in the business.
There is large number of new build
ings to be constructed this winter, and
many additions and alterations to be
made to several of the big hotels. Ol
some of them the alterations and ad-
ditions will cost almost as much as it
would to build new. 1t will be seen,
therefore, that work ought to be good
for several months to come. and hun
ment. 1t all means a bigger and better
Atlantic City, with improved facilities,
everywhere, for handling the great
crowds that are sure to come here again
next Summer. Next year, let us hope,
there will be no war scare in the Spring
to keep away timid Summer visitors. for
it cannot be denied that our little brush
with Spain had that effect the past sea-
son.
While there never was any real danger
OF Spanish assault or bombardment. yet
you could not make timid people of either
sex believe it. In spite of all assurances to
the contrary, they would persist in con-
juring up all sorts of unlikely if not i'm
possible things that were going to hap
pen, and no amount of argument would
shake their belief in their own theories.
Spain, at least, viii trouble us no more,
whatever other nations may do. Her
ghost is effectually laid and will forever
cease to be disturbing influence in the
Western Hemisphere. The Summer Girl
can battle and fiirt with the old mashers
on the Boardwalk, and she never need
to give thought to Spanish shot and
shell, hereafter.
The storm that assumed the proper
tions of blizzard, on Sunday morning.
was very severe here while it lasted, and
while there was much inconvenience to
many people, l do not hear Of much SER
ious damage. The wind howled and the
snow whirled, and pedestrians found it
hard to navigate the streets, but beyond
that and considerable snow shoveling
things moved along about as usual.
The railroad men had hard time d