Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-27
The Day of Deliverance for Paris is at
Hand.
SYSTEM OF UNDERGROUND ROADS
Boring of the First Section Has
Already Been Completed.
AFTER YEARS OF WAITING
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

be aware of the completion of the first
work on the Compromised Metropolitan
underground railway. AS it is, the news
has made great impression, and the peo-
pie fiocking to the scene of the miniature
earthquake, stroll away discoursing tri-
umphantly of this new proof of their CAPT
tails advancement. Yet it is not all praise.
We shall be able to go from the
Port-Maillot to VinCennes in twenty min
uteSr' heard an old man explaining to his
wife.
But who wants to go to Vincennes?"
snapped the old woman. 1t is the truth.
The great mass of old-fashioned people de-
plore these metropolitan improvements,
which are robbing Paris of it's old-time
charm. The cutting down of the trees of
the Esplanade des lnvalides in the interest
of the orleans railway terminus they re-
gard with horror. The crossing of the
Champs Elysees by the Vanves and Mont
rouge street car tracks is a piece of vandal-
ism. Automobile traffic, public and private,
is running the picturesqueneSS of the Paris
street. And the exposition itself, in their
View, will in no wise compensate the fair
city for the Objectionable Anglo-Saxon
enterprise that it is dragging in its train.
Latest improvements.
With all this the first section of the
Metropolitan is bored, straight under the
whole width of Paris, from the Port-Mail-
lot, the entrance to the Bots, to the Place
de la Nation, in the southeastern suburbs.
Every effort is being made to profit by
modern discoveries. The metropolitan I'M
foreground of London is remarkable chiefly
for the frequency of its trains but it is
hampered by all the tnconveniences of the
OLD industry Its cOal-burning locomotives,
smoking through dark galleries, badly ven
t:lated, cause the traveller to climb to the
surface of the earth again, half-choked and
covered with smut. The whole trips through
a black, iugllbrious crypt; and the only
gay note is that given al the stations by
the gaudy advertising posters that scream
at once in all the cOlOrs of the prism. In
Paris the larger stations will be lined with
shining metal and the smaller one with
white glazed brick. All the tunnel-way will
be i'll white shining cement, to reflect the
electric lights that Will be stationed forty
Ieet apart. The cars are also to be lighted
with electricity gratis. and not. as in Lon
don, subject 20 the extra tax of a slot-ma-
chine device.
The motive power is electricity, and, fur
thermore, the triumph, long deferred in
Paris, of the useful, ugly overhead trolley
system. Under ground it will not matter
1t must not be thought that the trolley is
a new thing in France. 1t figured as an
eccentricity in the exposition of 1880, ten
years ago. The ancient and important
city of Rouen was debauched early as
1893. Versailles, as many another pictur-
esque French town, has thrown its pictur-
SsIutlltSS " TAKE up the unInuSlCal ana
ugly utility. But Paris would have none of
It, overhead or surface. An influential
syndicate that asked only to run suburban
trolley lines into the city was repulsed in
1897. And even the necessities OF the expo
sitiOn have failed to help 1t, with its Ameri-
can capital to obtain even an experimental
concession since that date. I have heard it
said that these same Americans hope to
supply the Metropolitan. This will happen
only, it may be surmised, in case the
frenchmen make a failure of it themselves.
Traction Systems Around Paris.
In view of the objection to the trolley, it
Is curious to note that there are nine differ
ent systems of mechanical traction now
operating in or around Paris: % The Row
an steam system, 1889, of understanding
dummies, adapted only to suburban use.
% The Franc superheated water system
1889. CD The cable traction, 1891, used to
mount the hill at Bellevue. "a The Scroll
let VapOrizatiOn instantaneous system, 1852.
tJ) Slow charge accumulatOrs, 1893. 90
Compressed air, 1898. % Electric traction
by superficial contacts, 1896. 80 Rapid
charge accumulators, 1897, and 90 the per
fected Serpolet system of 1897. The Com
pagnie des TramWays de Paris, one of the
two progressing eding monopoes of the
capital, is about TO end all its experiments,
however, by a general adoption of the
ThOmsOn-H rapid charge Accumulate
Or system. 1t is also known that the Com
pagnie Generate Parisienne de Tramways,
the other monopoly. has asked permission
to establish an overhead trolley along its
suburban line to Charenton, Put this. it Is
sad, Is only a maneuyer to overreach the
American trolley syndicate. Undoubtedly
the street car companies of Paris, graspiug
and avariclOus as they are known to be, see
that the time has come to give the public
better accommodations. The umnibuses will
continue to go on IN the old way. 1t is one
of the evils of Paris that there are not half
enough of them. As the underground,
travelling through the thickly traversed sec
will roll h1Tp r
their ill-treated public, everybody will be
satisfied
On the American Plan.
While the types of the Metropolitan IN
derground's cars are not decided on definite
iy yet. it IS understood that they will be of
two kinds-ordinary cars and motor cars to
draw them. The first viii hold fifty pas
sengers each, the second twenty. An aisle
will run through each car, as through our
railway cars at nome, and the old European
compartment system will be given up.
This, by the way, is in accordance with the
general tendency throughout the continent.
The long, open American cars, first intro
duced by the dining car companies, have
come to stay. At each terminus the track
defects ana turns to form a horseshoe
shaped loop, round which the trains will
curve. There will be no stopping 10 turn
the motor cars and the trains will continue
going back and forth, only stopping to take
on and let off their passengers Once fur
nished with ticket, the Partisan will be
permitted to ride all day long, If so dis
posed. Tn!s will be the greatest innovation
of them all. 1t is feared ingenious paupers
may arrange to ride all night. They have
just captured a gang of thieves who made
1t their business to cut open the car seats
on the Belt line and rob them of their
horsehair stuffng. The Metropolitan man
ayers are now seeking a means to prevent
Its electric light bulbs being unscrewed and
carried off in the same way The bas
peuple of the capital take whatever they
can lay their hands on.
There Will be two classes of tickets and
accommodations, first and second class, at
and cents, respectively. 1t is expected
that train will pass every two minutes
This is the frequency of the METROPOLITAN
OF London, which 1t would be difficult to
surpass by reason of the many stops and
the short distances between stations.
Paris Talk for Years,
This great work, which is to do SO much
for Paris, does not date from yesterday;
for thirty years it has occupied the munich
pal councils of the capital. In 1865, when
they were constructing the central mar
kets, they thought a moment of an under.