Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-08

the van of the office corps are packed like
sardines into the street cars, the elevated
lines and the subway. In quick succession
the main body of office toilers. pushing for
ward hurriedly that the skyscrapers, al
ready comfortably filed. may be gained by
9 o'clock. Then the shoppers, tens of
thousands of wonderfully panoplied women;
and while they are in the midst or bar
gain searching, out pour the ants from sky
scraper and factory, overlooking into the
roadways and Drawing the dangers there as
they seek the hundreds of restaurants ca
tering to the midday appetite.
Scarcely have they got down to work again
when their women folk, homeward bound,
once more give the highways all the colors
of the rainbow; and the last of this
bundle bearing multitude is heading for
home down upon 1t sweep the wearied le-
gions of men. And after them the pleasure
seekers. Next the self-satisfied crowds out
for after dinner stroll and the last trans
actions of the day: and, as they are seeking
their beds, 10 and behold, the pleasure
seekers again, causing standing room to be
al a premium at midnight, as it was all day
long, in trolley car on the l. and in the
wonderful hole in the ground. Not until
these are safe at home are Manhattan's
streets free from crowds.
Even then the streets are not deserted,
by any manner of means. The night Owls
of the metropolis number thousands, and
such thoroughfares as Broadway Amster-
dam avenue, Sd avenue, Columbus avenue
and the others piercing straight up the is
land to f1atdom from the centers of recrea-
ton are never free of men and women max
ing for their respective roofs at hours vary
ing from l and o'clock to that one when
the early birds turn out into the fresh air
for the toll of another day.
These crowds are the cause of the major
ity of the city's most pressing troubles.
They grow so magically over night, and
from one day to the next, that there is no
keeping up with them.
People said that when the subway began
running trains that the well nigh disgrace
full crushing on elevated and surface lines
would, happily, be at an end. The subway
has been in operation scarcely half a year,
and already it is to be torn up regards
the way stations, because, forsooth, the de-
mands on them are too great to be met by
five and six car trains, and the stations
must be heightened so that eight and ten
car way trains can be run. At present the
express trains, which run the day through,
are composed of eight and ten cars, and at
all times except around the noon hour strap
holding, even, is at a premium. The sub
way, planned confidently to relieve the rapid
transit situation on Manhattan, has reached
the limit of its carrying capacity and the
crowds still increase, and the elevated roads
are damned as much ever, apparently,
and the surface lines are taxed to the ut
most at the rush hours, and-and-
Lack Transit Facilities.
Well, in desperation, in fresh attempt
to keep up with the crowds, the rapid tram
sit commission has lately made plans for a
quarter of billion dollars worth Of tun-
nels for the greater city. Eight tunnels are
to be bored under Manhattan. They will
pierce north and south and run across the
island from river to river. They will grid
iron the island below the surface, and if
the past is any criterion, before each of
them has been running a year at most 1t
will be damned to its limits and the city
will be crying out for transit facilities that
will enable ii to get to its offices and back
again at night with some degree of comfort
at least.
Brooklyn bridge is a gigantic monument
to the hopelessness of the task of ever out
stripping the crowds of Manhattan.
While the bridge was building the people