New-York tribune., 1903-02-12
UNSATISFACTORY STREET SIGN WORK.

The work of providing this Borough of Man
haitian with street signs has not been satlsfac-
torjlv done. SO much may be said, and really
needs to he said, without fear and without re
proach. So far as the work has been done at
all il has been discreditaby delayed. We are
not attempting TO say upon whom the blame for
the delay should fall. We simply say that the
administration which was 10 redeem the city
from the barbarism Of Tammany neglect and
InisI7Ile has now been in power more than thlr-
teen months and it has not yet succeeded in
performing SO simple job as the equipment of
this borough with street siEns-cne OF the pub-
lies most crying wants. We are trying not TO
be impatient. We realize that Rome was not
built in a day But there is a difference be-
tween expecting all things in an hour and ex-
pecting street signs in a year. We think the
latter expectation was reasona bic, and the non
fulfilment of it is discreditable-to somebody.
But several thousand signs have actually been
put up we are told and thousands more Will
be in place in a few weeks. so that the end or
this month will see signs along all the longl-
tudinal thoroughfares from Second-ave. TO
Tenth-ave. Without recurring TO the obvious
fact that this should have been done six months
ago. it is to be said frankly that the work,
even now that it is done after long waiting,
ent kinds OF signs in too many different places.
There are at least four and perhaps five or six,
entirely distinct kinds of signs, each with its
own neclIIiar nIacing The result is that until
one has committed TO memory an elaborate
guidebook of the city he never knows where
70 look for sign or what 1t will look like
when he finds it. On one avenue there are
little metal signs stuck on the corners of build
ings. On the next there are such signs on cleo
tric light poles, TO be read at nlght hy renected
light On the third there are transparent glass
signs on the four sides of gas lamps On the
fourth there are queer looking glass lanterns in
the shape of truncated triangles, with the signs
occupying the entire sides. These are of new
and exclusive design, and are doubtless well
meant But they don't always do we'll Even
if they are placed IT mathematcally exact re-
lations TO the streets, the stranger is at loss
10 know which street the name on one side be-
longs TO- seeing that it stands at oblique
angle 10 each. In the majority Of cases the
thing is not exactly placed, thus leaving the
wayfarer more hopelessly perplexed. He may
know he is at the Junction of Smth-st. and
Jones-st, but which is Smith and which Jones
is something he can't find out from the sign,
which stands, like the Presidential candidate
commemorated by Hosea Biglow. 'frontin'
south by north"
1t has been intimated that it was a good thing
TO put up several kinds of signs so that it
could be determined by actual trial which was
the best. We cannot agree with that notion.
Street signs are not a new and untried thing,
which we must experiment with as with R0nt-
gen rays or wireless telegraphy. They have
been in use for uncounted years in practically
every civilized city in the world except New
York There is no more occasion for expert
menting with new freak designs than for trying
brown paper in place of leather for shoe soles.
What is wanted is a system of signs uniform