The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-19

Are New Workers to begin a reali- zation, to measure, Of that subterra- mean existence which romancers like Jules Verne and Bulwed Lytton have woven into their charming tales? It would seem so. Arrangements already have been made to open department store at about the level of the subway station at Fourth avenue and Twenty third street, and there is serious talk Of an arcade running under Twenty third street, from Fourth avenue to Broadway and Fifth avenue. Once this IS built 1t will be only a short time un- Ill the arcade is extended to Sixth ave- nue, if not further Then will come the demand for feeders for this tunnel up and down the shopping part of Sixth avenue, and when they have been dug It will be only natural to relieve the crush on Broadway by putting street under that congested thorough fare
 William Waldorf Astor took in these possibilities the other day, when, as he looked at the skyline of the city, he
 New York seems to have gone up as high as 1t seems now it must go downward" This remark, taken in connection with the near approach of the opening of the subway, discloses a vista of an underground New York. One can look forward, say twenty years. and see tunnels under the prinei- pal strets, which will be devoted to the same business purpose as those on ! the surface thoroughfares to-day. Who knows but 1924 will see avenues under ground with great stores, theaters. res taurants, offices, shops, bazars and the hundred and one beehiyes of human in- dustry?
 Then New Workers will begin to ap- proximate the life of those under ground dwellers which Bulwer Lytton pictured in ''The Coming Race" writ ten in 1879. These people did wonder ful things under the surface by means of a mysterious agency called vril It furnished their motive power, which did away with the use of horses and other draft with the use of horses and other draft animal, and provided them with a light which did not make the absence of the sun particularly to the visitor from the regions of the day.
 With electricity developed as it is to- day, we have an agency which, to large extent, realizes the dream of the novelist.
 In any other city than New York the suggestion of underground streets, underground sores, underground thea ters and underground life generally would be absurd, but the physical characteristics of the island of Man. haitian are such that the idea seems reasonable. Long and narrow, bound ed on the east and west by two wide rivers, its main streets too narrow now to accommodate the immense traffic, 1t must provide new channels for it's ever-growing life.
 For a decade or more the idea has prevailed among engineers that it would be necessary to build a double deck streets to relieve the pressure in the more congested sections of the city. Now, it seems that with the opening of the subway, the engineers will have to turn their attention, not to the style of double-deck streets they previously had inmind--one street on k the ground and one above it-bpt to one street on the ground and one be- low it.
 The changes in the conditions of life ] in New York are So rapid that many persons do not appreciate the marvels that are being wrought. Less than thirty years ago the horse car was the great vehicle of transportation The elevated railroad, which was the won- der of the world for a time, semed to have solved the problem of meeting the Hcity's marvellous growth, but the ele- Yated lines, developed as they have been to their utmost limit of capacity, now are inadequate. If this is the ex- perience of the last thirty years, what must be expected of the next thirty with the expansion of business and the increase of population greater with each succeeding year?
 If the next stage of development is underground, as MT. Astor predicts, the time may not be far distant when woman in Kingsbridge. will get into the elevator in her apartment house in. the morning and, going to the basement Q the building, be taken by tunnel connection to the subway Then, whisked down to the shopping section, she could visit the stores under ground along the various subterranean areades, have luncheon in an under ground restaurant attend a matinee performance in an underground thea ter and boarding a subway train, reach home in the evening without having once seen the light of day from the time she left home.
 If the shopping district is to be tapped by underground arcades 1t is reasonable to suppose that the sky scraper section down town will have the same facilities. The business man who lives up town or in Brooklyn or in Jersey, may travel by subway from Harlem or bv tunnel from Jersey or Brooklyn to his office and home again without stepping on one of the surface streets from time he leaves in morning pntil he returns at night. Indeed, there are schemes afioat even now to connect certain apartment houses with the subway. One of the largest stores in the city has planned to have con nection with the subway, and real es- tate men say they do not see why that connection should be confined to stores
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