The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-17

ton or fremont street. This seems doubly
ness, because the city has such exceptional
| streets Tor such vehicles. while New York
ana Boston pavement is not to be COM
pared TO IL at ALL
| Go along the resident streets, especially
| the oider ones, and you will see what Ben
FRANKLIN saw when he did likewise; the
great array of white. carefully scrubbed.
stone doorsteps and house underpinning. Ii
is feature of the city that gives IL an
| individuality. Go along some OF the newer
! resident streets and you Will see another
Philadelphia idea carried out, In the form
| OF small porches i'm front Of the two and
| three-story houses that run in blocks. all
| Just alike. On warm evenings you will see
FAMILY gatherings on these white steps and
| small porches, enjoying cool Dreezes from
| the going down of the sun until an hour
before the next day begins. There seems
70 be plenty of room in Philadelphia, and
| twc-story houses with six or seven rooms
each, three-story houses with nine or
| ten rooms, are the rule, renting for from
$40 10 $50, according 70 location and size.
1t is only within the past week or two that at
| there mas been any apparent Inclination 10
| depart from this BODYBUILDING custom TO
| the sky-scraper-ap artment-house style OF
| more crowded cities, but now the Boston
and New York idea has taken root. think
| that is why Philadelphia has such a firmly
rooted reputation for slowness. Folks don't
4 have TO hurry, and so simply don't There
| is no point of congestion where people rush
to and from at morning and night going
TO and from working places, TO and from
| their homes. as there is In Boston or New
York, and one misses all the hustle and
hustle of Park row and Brooklyn bridge,
| or Park-street station in the subway, at
| those hours.
NO GRADE CROSSINGS.
| While not to be compared in size or
| amount of business done with the North
| and South Union stations in Boston, Phil
| adelphia has couple of fine terminals In
the Broad-street station of the Pennsyl-
| vania Railroad and the terminal OF the
| Reading road. Not having any subways or
elevated street railways, nor any need for
such, Philadelphia has her steam railroads
| enter the city on stills and underground
doing away with all grade crossings. Even
this method does not entirely do away with
accidents, as was shown the other day
when several cars were burned and lives
lost by an accident in tunnel.
League Island navy yard is in Philadei-
phia, but comes as near as possible TO not
being, for il is four miles straight away
from City Hall, south on Broad street. on
the banks OF the dirty Delaware river,
where the city stops, and close to the
drtier Schuylkill. which furnishes the city
with water. Just now there are special at
fractions for natives and visitors at the
yard in the twin battleships Indiana and
Massachusetts, which are laid up in reserve
TO await the time when officers and men
enough TO put them into active service
again are available. The first Sunday the
two ships were at the yard six thousand
people visited them. a good proportion
making the journey on bicycles. Being
surrounded by fresh water. this navy yard
is well adapted for the laying up Of ships
with steel bottoms for long periods for
fresh water does not have such an effect on
the bottoms as salt water has.
Jersey mosquitoes have reputation that
covers a good extent of country, but by
the time League island mosquitoes are bet
ter known their little Jersey cousins will
have to hustle to maintain their present
position. League island mosquitoes come in
large packages and seem well equipped for
business. When the two battleships re-
ferred to arrived at that island navy yard
the officers and crews were not long kept
In ignorance of the bugs presence, for
even while the ships were being towed up
that tortuous back channel (Which is the
particular home of League island mosqui-
tos and the special place selected for lay
ing up warships for long periods) advance
agents arrived on board TO see what sort
of these agents, and their general equip
ment for their business caused renewed
alarm in the sailors minds. 1t may be that
the mayor of Mosquito Flats picked out the
most formidable OF his officials and sent
them out in attempt intimidate the
advancing shiploads of human beings. If
so, success did not crown his efforts, but,
on the contrary, preparations We're imme-
diately made for repelling the larger body
of mosquitoes when they should come. The
decided to adopt tactics similar to those if
his ship were about 10 be attacked by
fleet of torpedo boats-he decided to put
out mosquito nets. A view of the sample
quickly convinced him that nothing short
Of wire nets would do, and 1t might be adj
visable TO have them Of steel. So the first
thing he did after the ship was tied up at
her dock was to make a request for the
fitting of every air port in the sides of the
ship and every door inside the ship with
It'll
seem like a joke but. on the contrary, it
is straight fact. The work is now in
progress.
SOME NAVAL FARMERS"
Perhaps you don't know we have farmers
in the navy. Well, we have men who do
farming. anyway. Some members of the
battleship Indiana have taken advantage
of the probable long stay of the ship at
League island to stake out claims on some
waste land close to the vessels dock, and
as a result of their agricultural labors
they expect to eat of corn, squashes, toma-
toes. potatoes and other products of the
soil and feast their eyes upon various
| flower beds in due time.
Philadelphia drinking water is a thing
for strangers to let alone. Only natives
who have been through careful course of
acclimation extending through years can
safely use IL as beverage. This may ap-
pear to be another joke, but IL is a solemn
fact, and one that Philadelphia folks wish
was otherwise. There are plenty of other
liquids that are drinkable in the town.
The first installment Of officials are on the
ground and have opened temporary head
quarters in which they are now getting
things into shape for the convention.
strike (of which the city has had variety
on hand), hindered progress on the conven-
ton hall, but all difficulties have been over
come in one way and another, and the au-
ditorium is ready, just as the city finally
succeeded in raising its guaranteed conven-
ton fund on time, in spite of a deal of
bother and outside criticism. The city ex-
poets big time aside from the actual ses-
sions Of the convention, and the delegates
that come officially, for there is to be big
parade of Republican clubs and plenty of
the usual receptions by and for the candi-
dates and others prominent in the party, at
the hotels, all of which can hardly fail to
bring thousands of strangers who like TO be
onlookers. If not participants in what is
going on.