The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-02-08
rs a BOSTON DISEASE.
Nervous q Complaint Knovn g
i" Shift Attacks All Glasses.

Has Its Origin In the Introductiea OF
Street Cars In the Hub ana Ex-~
tends Even to Guests At =
Receptions.
The, transition from omnibuses to
street cars has been too sudden and
too swift for Boston. 1t has been in
a degree like the change from stage
coaches to railroads some years ago,
when Bostonians did not get over their
nervous apprehensions of danger. for
years after the snorting engines went
cavorting across the commonwealth.
Now the staid residents of this town
have new disease which is attributed
directly to the coming of the street
cars, says report from that city. 1t
is called "shitt" and it makes its ap-
pearance in the form of a nervous
movement, almost entirely involun-
tary, causing great fatigue and ennui.
These conditions, it may be said, are
usually present in the average Boston
ian under normal conditions, but they
have been so greatly aggravated by the
street car disease that nerve special
lists fear the entire city will become
affected unless a sudden and radical
change is effected in street car meth
DDS.
AS is we'll known, Boston is densely
populated city for its size, and the
streets are narrow and crowded.
Therefore when street cars were intro
duced here a short time ago it was
found that th,e cars became
crowded to their utmost before they
had gone many squares. The street
car company, desiring to squeeze as
many nickels as possible out of every
round trip of every ear, issued orders
to the conductors to fill the cars tight
ly, as is the custom in Chicago, New
York and other cities. With the old
ominbuses this was not the custom.
When all the seats were occupied the
bus took on no more passengers. But
the street cars are different. When
the seats at each side of the closed
car are comfortably filled so that no
more space is visible the conductor re-
members his orders to squeeze in the
passengers, and therefore when an
other passenger gets on the conduc-
tor thrusts his head in at the car door
and calls: "Move up, please"
Obediently the passengers move up.
They never dreamed at the start of re-
senting the instructions of the conduc-
tor, but moved up to make room for
M
ger got on they got the order once
more: Move up, please" and they
moved up. Finally the, seats are all
filed so tightly that no more passen-
gers can be squeezed into them and
then the latecomers stand in the aisle.
But still the conductor is not salts
fed. "Step forward, please" is then
the command, repeated and reiterated
so often in a single trip that it gets to
be second nature with the passengers
to step forward every time the car
stops to take on another passenger.
It would not be so bad if the thing
stopped here, but right there is where
the trouble comes in. It did not. Rid
ing up and down town daily and being
admonished SO many scores of times
to Move up, please" and 'step for
ward, please" the Bostonians have &C.
quired the habit of doing these things
unconsciously. Even though there are
plenty of seats in car everyone moves
up a bit when a new passenger enters.
until often there are six or seven pas
sengers crowded in one end of a
seat with plenty of empty seats
behind them from which they have
"moved up" The nervous complaint
took an even firmer hold on it's victims
and made itself manifest in private
life, however, and that is why the nerve
specialists have been called into con-
sultation to check it's ravages. Now
when several people are in room at
an evening party or reception and a
new caller enters everyone involun.
tarily moves up one seat or steps for:
ward into the corner, anticipating a
command from an imaginary conduc-
tor.
So widespread is the complaint and
so embarrassing is it to many thou
sands of Bostonians that there is a
movement on foot to bring pressure to
bear on the street car company to mod
ify or abrogate its orders to the con.
ductors and do away with the moving
up and stepping forward. The doctors
believe that if this is done the Boston
ians will gradually recover their nor
NAL calm and the Boston shift" will
disappear. It is strange that this dis
ease has never appeared in other cities
where street cars have been run in the
same general way, crowded to their ut
most capacity, but that may be caused
by difference in the temperament of
the people. Where street cars have
long been an established factor of city
life the nervousness occasioned by the
conductors orders has probably given
way to callousness bred of long ssocia-
ton. People have got used to being
jostled about, crowded into corners
and jabbed by conductors. This is all
new to Boston, which has so long been