The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-16
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF
THE METROPOLIS.


Biu for an Open Sunday saloon.
Local Travel Conditions Becoming
More Dangerous-The Long Island
New York Tunnel, Abandoned Sew
oral Years Ago, to be Completed.
ping Pong" New York's Latest
craze, Is a Kind of ParlOr Tennis.
Naws and views of the street.
New York, Feb. 14.-To drink or not
W drink. that is the Sunday question
that is still occupying the public mind;
whether tbs better, on the whole. to
honor a law that no one seems to
have much use for, or take the side
door and dodge it. To the attempted
solutions of the excise Sphink's riddle
District Attorney Jerome has now add
Cd another. He has gone up to AL
hanv with mis- little dill in his pocket,
nroyiding for the opening of saloons,
hatveeu the hours of 1 and II o'clock
n m. Perhaps he fondly believes that
the child of his imagination has a
chance of passing and becoming a law
1f so. he is in class all by himself,
for everybody else knows what the
when it comes UP. There are large
numbers of country gentlemen in AL
banv who are waiting for that bill with
wide, sinister grins and well-poised
axes 1t is doubtful whether its re-
mains will be recognized by the fond
narent when it is all over. There is no
hope for any bill that looks toward
solving this vexed question by COM
mon sense. The upstate legislators
are bound that New York shall be
closed city on Sunday: it doesn't hurt
them to have it SO and to vote any
other way would be to ALLEVIATE useful
anti-saloon votes. Meantime New York
Is "a wide open city on Sunday; every
hody knows that. You can get a drink
on almost any corner, illegally, 1t is
true, but with no worse bother Of eva
sion than going in at the side door in
staad of by the front OF course the
up-staters lift Mortified hands to
heaven and inveigf against the me-
tropolis as modern Babylon. But II
New York opens it's saloons ON Sunday
and declines to enforce the excise law
In this respect, 1t is up to the he
publican state administration: Inc
boWlers about New Yorks iniqulty
have conveniently forgotten that there
is such a body as the State Excise
Ro1rd. This apparently obsolete organ
izatlon was. contrived ostenslbly TO en-
force the excise laws in any. commu-
nity which wouldn't or coufun't en-
force them itself. 1t has the power OF
revolving the license of any saloon de-
tecred in violation of the law 1t the
state administration really wished to
stop Illegal Sunday liquor selling IN
New York it could do so in six weeks
through this agency. 1t hasn't done SO.
Nobody ever hears of the state EN
else Board What has become OF that
hodv. anyhow? Doesn't 1t do anything
but draw in a list of salaries?
Local traffic is rapidly verging from
tha uncomfortable into the dangerous
Every day the crowding on the trans
portation lines at the rush hours pe-
comes worse and there is no relief in
sight. A complaining letter writer 10
one of the. papers viyidly describes the
ca,s Of the sixth avenue elevated as
expanding visibly every time the. hu-
man sardines within try to breathe.
The Third avenue line is just as bad;
worse in one respect, as there the
main crush is at one station, Whlle on
the West Side the traffic is more scat
tered But worst of all is the BrooKlyn Il
bridge There have been two cases OF
serious injury at the New York ter
n,!nal within a week, and the wonder
IS. to anyone who has seen the rush
hour lam there, that people aren
killed every day. The narrow and IN
sufficient waiting platforms, entlrely
without protective or guard rails 10
shut them of from the tracks. are
massed with struggling, jostling, snow
ing humanity from five to SIX O'Clock
six days in the week. With the arrival
cf each train there is a terrific rush
for the three foot gates. The police ana
guards are helpless; it is simply mop
rule. There is no chivalry, no decency,
no ordinary humanity in that mass.
Women are mauled and torn, men use
shoulders, elbows and even fists in the
fight for entrance: the scene mas an
the brutal attributes of a panic, with
out its existing cause. Last week L
saw an old crippled man caught in the
current His cane was wrested away
from him. then his crutch, he fell IN
i a heap and would very likely have been
tram2led to death but for huge, and
half-drunken longshoreman who
4 seemed to be the one human specimen
\ in the mob. He stood over the helpless
q old man, brandishing huge hsts ana
threatening a variety of profane retr1-
button upon anyone who should at
tempt to run over him. The police
finally got the cripple out of the way.
Down stairs where the trolley lines
come in, conditions are as bad ana
sometimes worse. The solid masses OF
waiting people are literally showed
apart by the tenders of the cars as
they come in. On the Bridge and on
the elevated roads alike the trouble
seems likely to grow worse all the
time. Trains are run, in the rush hours,
as close as is compatible with safety
sometimes a trifie closer. Relief from
better train service is impossible ap-
parently. The new East River Bridge
is nearer, but that will not afford much
relief. In fact il is doubtful whether
any of the projected systems will af-
ford more than temporary relief since
they create their own public as fast
as they are completed. The greatest
possible benefactor this city could have
would be some genius who could devise
and carry out a universal system ap-
piicable to a city so situated geograph-
lcaliy, that 1t is being strangled by Its
natural barriers to expansion.
Few people remember that ten years
ago there was a tunnel explosion In
what is now part of Greater New York,
more disastrous In human life and In
Jury than the recent tunnel accident,
though not so sensational. In the Long
Island City explosion five persons were
killed and more than fifty injured. This
~ recalled by a recent offer to those
having claims against the company on
account OF the explosion of 10 per cent.
OF the amount OF their claims. 1t is
thought that this offer indicates a
movement to continue the tunnel