The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-13
WEST SIDE IS NEGLECTED.
REV. THOMAS HAMRLY CALLS At
TENTIoN TO RAD MUNICIPAL.
CONDITIONS

preliminary to his sermon at the Gin
TON Avenue Methodist church last night
Rev. Thomas Hambly delivered a pre-,
l13e on West Side Streets" He said
Eefhaps 1t may seem strange to some
LOT the pulpit to enter into the discussicA
q puPilc improvements. 1t is slighT
uepartere from the ordinary, and, Of
course, divergence of any kind from the
old beaten path of custom is ALWAYS re-
gafded by the conservative as a calamity
step. Let me assure you that there are
Ierlo ei IN the history of every city when
the IatherS forget their public duties in
the broad and general sense and confine
thelr considerations to only a few things
e. true representative will always find
Tune to attend to the minute
am not alone in this work notice
mat such men as the Rev. S. D. McCon-
nell. one of the most prominent of Brook
lynS F,piscopalian rectors has come 70
Tor greater consideration at the hands
OF the city authorities. His ground was
tiiat New YORK proper was working for
the lions share of improvement and try
ing to make Brooklyn a dependency of
the great half. His attitude was warmly
commended by all Of the Brooklyn press
or ooi be;r Sscn cohdltlon OBTAINS here. We
are oelng neglected. Our streets arc
practically played out. We have scarcely
Il crossing CT the west side that will
out endangerIng oneself.
The street car tracks stand I'D from
TWO to four inches above the level of tho
road, while between the rails there is
soaking river of mud and wafer The
unpaYed portions of the road in the
center of the street are in appearance
az undulatlng continuance of mud hum
mGcks and gopher mounds, pit holes and
nuh Wrenchlng sinks. At the corner of
South Robert and Isabel, a center of
trade, there is no crossing. The street
cars III rainy weather will drop passeng-
efS into mud and water anywhere from
one TO three inches deep. A wood dealer
last week came to tile rescue of travellers
by dropping a large half round slab into
the liquid entrenchmcnt. On the other
slde OIL the same street tho crossing is
worn so thin and bare that to attempt
TO cross 1t plunGers a person into a gey-
ser OF mud whose springs sometimes
reach the height of the feather in q
iady's hat. These are not isolated cases
Ihey are representative of the general
condition. Nabasha street is almost i'm
passabie for man or beast. vehicle OF
cycle. Business has wonderfully deter
lorated on that street. and the same
paralysis in evidence there is striking
west side streets generally.
n the meantime, through the influence
of Eastern capitalists. loan agencies and
misers, the opposition of business men
on the East Side, and the superlative in
difference of the people of the West Side
a requiem is being prepared to be sung
at an early demise of the shadowy bcd :
of mercantile and social life that used TO
be ! ARA gn our board of public works
for being under the influence of some
civic narcotic and sWooning ablivious of
their duty toward us; our dermen and
assemblymen for not noticing these
wants and trying to relieve them. This
administration is not particularly culpable
in the mind of the voter. for the fact is
patent to all that no public improvement
in the line mentioned of any speakable
amount has been done for several years.
The result of all this objectionable ne
elect is that the moving wagon is the
popular thing. People come into our
midst find out our condition and move
out. Capital does not seek investment
with us and our growth is practically at
standstill Naturally. we have the fin
est locations for private residences and
afford the best locations for manufac-
lures. Our ward is beautiful and pic
turesque. The only thing it needs, like
the artists picture, is snap. If our cit
liens would display some pride of place
investment would come our way. Hun
dreds of homes would be built here, pub
lie halls would be erected and trade 20
some extent localized. Let US begin ere
it is too late to work improvern ent in our
condition that the word expansion NAV
have some local meaning