Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-02
STRICT GUARD IN SUBWAY.
Every Foot Watched to Keep Out the
 Idle and Vicious.


 With the great subway now practd- cally completed but unused, extraordi- nary precautions are being taken to see that no damage is done to it. The precautions are necessary because or the fine chance 1t offers to shelter vagrants and crooks.
 For many months Or ever since the stations were completed and the great underground road began to as- sume shape, "a regiment of men has been employed to see that the work has not been molested by providers. This force has been increased as it has neared completion, until it now numbers more than 1000 men. They. are employed as watchmen at the stations, as roundsmen who patrol the big tube from end to end, and as detectives.
 At each station on the line from the big one at City hall up to Fort George and across the Harlem river, there are two watchmen, one for day duty and the other for night. They are under the strikest orders not to let any one enter station without pass issued by the subway construction company and signed by John B. Mo Donald.
 Notwithstanding the signs ''No admittance'' on the boarded up en- trances on the street level, scores of people daily open the temporary wood en doors, imagining that they can get around without anybody saying Boo! They find their mistake out when they reach the station level. if they are not stopped at the door. They are polite lv but firmly told that they can't have "a peek without a pass.
 The City hall station has the most visitors. Strangers see the neat en- frances in front of the City hall and are possessed by curiosity at once. The watchman is busy all day long turning people away.
 s.The busiest day is Sunday" he said the other day" Then it's awfuI' More than a hundred come here on Sunday. If all of them folks that want to see the place on Sundays were to be talzin' trains. sure the road would pay at the start.
 ssThe worst is the women. They come down stairs just as gentle like, and when ask lem for pass, they say just sweet like. that they know all about the pass and they would get one if 1t wasn't only peek that they
 
 they're tryin' to get the peek. have to push lem back up the stairs.
 aOne woman come down last Sun- day, and when pushed her little to show her that she must really go up again she began to cry.
 !" Please, sir she said, Pm from CaIiforny, and came away across the continent and got to go back to-mOr- row and the folks out there do want to know what New York's tunnel railroad is like Can't just have a peek so I can tell 'em?'
 "Now it's pretty hard denyin' the likes of that. but I'm afraid of the roundsmen and detectives they have watchin' us, and I had to turn her back.
 "One day nice looking gentleman with silk hat came down the stairs all alone and started to walk right by me- I just put my stick out and stop ped Ilin1. He looked surprised.
 "Don't know me?' he says. I'm MT Belmont Now I'd heard that there was a man by that name who was backin' up MT Mcdonald and was coin' to run the road. but I'd never laid eyes on him. I told him that he'd have to get a pass and that 1 wasn't takin' any chances with my job.
 "sWelI,' he says, that's right, but guess this ought to do.' And he hauls out some of his cards, and sure enough it was Mir Belmont all right I~let him through and he just looked around all alone down here takin' in everyfllinR like a man would look ov- CT n new house he was buildin' for himself. Then he walks out and bids mo good evenin'. And that's the man thatss goin' to run the road.
 .sSome of the rubes that come down sere thinks that trains are running ana want to know how soon one will he along. They'd give a man good niece of money, some of 'em, just to ride through on a flat car to be aDie fo tell folk at home they'd done It. Folks that belong here seem to De more patient, because they figure out Tspose, that they'll come down these stems some few thousands of times before they die, and be sick of .em.
 "They ain't buttin' in like the Rubes But I'll be glad when the waitin' is over, you bet"
 It isn't only curiosity seekers the subway builders fear now that the work is nearly done. At night, when the workmen are out of the way, it is necessaryto watch every mile of the big passage as well as the stations to see that no disorderly persons or thiev- es have got in through the few holes that remain to be patched up. The subway is divided into sections, and two men patrol section together all night. They also see that the watch paan are at their posts