The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-22
PENNSY'S ENERGY.
Astonishing Progress In Re-
construction Of the
Damaged Depot.
WAITING ROOM NEARLY READY
Big Fire Hasn't lwnterfered With
the Trafic-aan Injured by
sDebris This Morning.

BY tonight, or, at the very latest, to-
morrow morning, there will be a waiting
room ready in the Pennsylvania depot,
and to accomplish this almost %superhu-
man feat the company's men have
worked necessarily day and night. In
fact, the appearance at the depot this
morning is such that a stranger arriving
there would never dream that there had
been a terrible fire raging yesterday.
All the ruins of the waiting room and
restaurant have been boarded up and
nothing can of course be seen from the
outside. Inside that barrier at least a
hundred men are dragging out the debris.
Another force is loading il on to carts,
which transfer it to cars, and they run 1t
out TO the meadows, where it is burnt
up. Since the main part of the rubbish
has been removed, there remain the grid
ers and machinery. and the sight OF
these huge pieces of metal twisted into
every conceivable shape tells forc1ply
h a severe ire it must nave been.
Thomas Fletcher, one OF MI. Hanley 5
men assisting in removing the depris, was
seriously injured TINS morning while en-
gagged in dragging out pieces OF the
wreck. A big girdcr tell. and one end OF
it struck him down.. His chest was pad
ly hurt and one arm and one leg severely
crushed. An ambulance took the injured
man to ST. FRANCIS Hospital.
After Fletcher had been. removed the
the ruins enc belonging 10 the ticket
office OF the Railroad Company, and the
orher was the property, OF the Pullman
Palace Car Company. The Railroad Com
panys safe was broken open and the
books and about 5000 of cash were found
unlnJured. There is about the same sum
will be opened some time today. The
Pullman Company have lost practically
nothing excepe a few tickets.
mo, we have not suilered," said Super
intendent James G. Gibbons of the COM
pany this morning when he could spare a
lew minutes 10 ak to a News repre-
sentative; In 1act, SO far as we are
business is running along as satisfactorily
and smoothly as ever 1t did"
Until the temporary waiting room is
ready passengers will continue to buy
tickets on the train. The temporary wait
ing room begins at the old iron railing in
the trainshed, outside the doors OF the OLD
waiting room, and on a direct line mark
from the little wooden office used as an
information bureau. From this railing
runs TO the roof a board partition eX-
tending to the Cortlandt street passage
way to the upper deck of the ~ferryboats
on the south 10 the trainshed and on the
north to the TWenty-third street passage
way. The opposite east wall OF the tenn
porary waiting room is The row OF doors
which lead into the old waiting room. In
the building now .being erected the ticket
Office will be at the south end OF the ROOM.
Engineer Gardiner and his assistants We're
in and out, out and in this morning dl-
recting and planning to hurry along the
completion of the temporary structure.
The work of the Departments has been
universally commended Such energy,
such resources are rarely seen, and it was
best summoned up by a visitor this morn
ing when he had recovered from his sur
prise at the work accomplished
They can't be beat
Superintendent E.. f. Brooks, activity
and energy p~ersoniied, is exceedingly
busy these days. He is hic ct ubique,
nothing escapes him and his orders are
promptly and efficiently carried out. He
was watching the men laying planks
across the tracks in the train shed this
morning for incoming and outgoing pas
sengers when a News" representative
addressed HIM
..You see,' he said, with a smile, point
ing to the temporary structure at the
east end of the t~rainshed, 1--WE have not
been idle. We expect that the temporary
waiting room will be ready today. All the
debris of the fire we are running out by
cars, and Wen soon begin rebuilding"
The restaurant people will start to build
the trainshed, but they will not be
ready for their patrons for at least a
week yet. They have collected from the
rubbish a miscellaneous collection of
dishes, glasses, cutlery, siphon bottles,
whiskey and wine bottles, empty, of
tables. pans and utensils of the kitchen
in more or less a battered condition. All
these they have stored in one OF the
stores on Exchange place, and this morn
ing one of Mr.. Kent's managers was gaZ-
ing ~ruefully at the heap.
mot worth a hundred dollars, he said;
swe nave lost everything. We will be
ready | hope for business in a week"