The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-07-09
They No Longer Have Any Bus
mess in the City.
B. Il. Smythe Tells Civic I'm
prOvement Society Why.
REFORMS HE PROPOSES
Wants Horses Banished From
Kansas Avenue.
Would Also Keep Hacks and
Express Wagons Off.

The opening note for several mucn
needed reforms in this city was SOund-
ed at a meeting last night at the Com
mercial club rooms of the members OF
the Centennial CIVIC Improvement
association. A paper read by b. -
provements'' set forth some of the lines
along which the members of the Civic
improvement association are INTENDING
to direct their efforts. The prlnclpai
Improvement Which was suggested was
the Punishment of the hitching post
from the streets of the business dis
trict of the city. Also providing place
for hack stand at some central loca-
ton off the main thOroughfares:
Dean Kaye, president of the assocla-
ton introduced a resolution at the
meeting last night for the appointn enl
of committee to go before the city
council with a proposition to tax the
bill boards at the rate of cents pei
square foot, as well as to make an Ell
fort to secure the passage of the other
ordinances desired for the Improvement
of the city. Dean Kaye believes that
bill boards and sign boards are OBJ
structions that tend to retard the adorn-
ment of the city, and that as a source
of revenue to their owners they should
be taxed
Mr.. Smythe's paper contained many
good suggestions and was in part as
follows:
HACKS ana carriages LOT hire SAOuiu
not be allowed to use Kansas avenue
for their stands. They should be re-
moved to some suitable place where
they could be instantly called up by
telephone from an office centrally To-
Gated. Express wagons should be re-
moved from Sixth avenue, between
Kansas avenue and Quincy street, and
not allowed to stand within 100 feet OF
the avenue from Sixth to Eighth. Ihey
should be required to stand where there
is good drainage and where an album
dance of water could be had every day
to clean the street.
AT the corner of Sixth and Kansas
avenue at the present time one has only
to close his eyes and ears for a short
time to imagine he is in the midst of
vast livery stable. This is an evil that
cries aloud to heaven. The same thing
is largely true in front of our refined
dry goods stores. Such odOrs must be
banished from Kansas avenue if it is
desired to make it a most beautiful and
enjoyable thoroughfare. Wide as that
avenue is, with 20 feet or so of its
middle course constantly occupied by
an electric street car way and II to
Is more on each side occupied all day
by hacks, carriages, wagons, drays, and
all sorts of vehicles propelled by horses,
there is little room on either side of
the car tracks for carriages and other
vehicles to drive along and pass each
other room for an additional car
riage to stop at a store, and none at
all for bicycles, unless they take the
forbidden and forbidding street car
way.
THE dust that arises on any windy
day from the streets where horses have
stood is menace to health, to say
nothing of the damage to silks, laces,
millinery, fine furniture, pictures and
SHOW windows of the various, stores
This, with out beautiful asphalt streets
and proper methods of keeping them
clean, may be reduced to a minimum.
A dustless city would be a new bless
ing.
'All freight should be unloaded from
the alley. This is an innovation that
Will neceSsitate considerable of an
honest desire for the welfare of the
city. But drays should not be allowed
to stop on the avenue to unload. There
is no reason why coal should not be
unloaded in the rear of the lots in
stead of the front. If heating plants
in store buildings are properly con-
structed, the coal is more accessibly
unloaded at the back of the lot than
at the front.
Express goods may be delivered at the
front The removal of freight to the
rear of the buildings gives the express
man clearer way in front. The great
piles OF empty goods boxes, sacks of
hour, barrels of salt, boxes and kegs
of portable drugs, chicken coops, farm
implements, drain tile, heaps of decay
ing vegetables and all manner of rub
Dish, should be made to disappear from
the sidewalks.
"All hitching posts and rings should
be removed from the business portion
OF Kansas avenue. Horses are not to
be tied there. Carriages and other con-
veyances drawn by animals might be
permitted to stand in front of a store
SO long as a driver sits in the carriage
and the occupants are in the store at
tending to business. When the occu-
pants have moved on the driver should
be required to. This would greatly re-
duce the number of runaways and
smashups.
AT present, when on beautiful!
evening all the city is parading up and
down Kansas avenue and the sidewa ks
are thronged with people, lady can
not walk within three feet of the curb
for fear of being bitten by some one
of the numerous SpOrtive horses stand
ing along the walk.
Let the horses. with all their vile
train of stable odors. be removed per-
manently from the one street of our
city that was designed to be. and by
right ought to be, beautiful business
thoroughfare- The day of electric con-
veyances and automatic motors of all
kinds for business and pleasure is at
hand. The horse. except as beast Of
burden in certain cases, is an anti
Quated means CT 1ocomotion. He has
not, however, yet outlived his useful
ness. He has his place in nature; but it
is not in a parlor; and it is also not on
the beautiful business street we call
Kansas avenue.
Dogs are unnecessary in a city. In
the prehistoric ages. and in the early
history of life of man, many thousands
of years ago, when the struggle for the
mastery began between man and the
lower animals. the dog became valu-
able and subservient ally of man. His
presence was needed not only to aid
man in defending himself against
ferocious animals but to aid in finding
and capturing such animals as were
necessary for food and sustenance. At
later period the dog was useful in
protecting mans fiocks of domesticated
animals and in retrieving wounded and
slain game. Even now the same condi-
lions exist in many parts of the world
and everywhere in the country the dog
is useful in pretty much the same kind
of work, protecting domestic animals.
hunting and watching the premises and
property.
THE dog has been so true and faith
full an animal in ages past that man is
even now repaying his kindness by be-
ing faithful to him even to the ten
thousandth generation Of ignoble ours,