The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-05
The Car Receipts Have Trebled in Five
 Years. THE GROWTH OF SERVICE Nearly Three Times as Many Niles
 of Tracks. And Three Times ss Many People Are Riding as Rode Five Years Ago --AlI of Which shows citys
 wonderful Development.
By VIII T. sheehan.


 The wondereful growth of Montgor1- cry in the past five years Is shown most by the development and expansion of it's street car system even as this same wonderful growth is shown least by the few changes made in the heart of the business section of the city. The eye of the stranger or the visitor is more liable to dwell upon the looks and ap- pearances of the business portion of tho city for evidences of its growth and
 prosperity than upon any other phys-
 ical aspect but the changes made in
 the congested business district of Mont gomery. as numerous as they have been. do not by any means indicate the wide and rapid development of Alabama's capital.
 But the street car service, which the average stranger does not consider a gauge, has shown wonderful develop ment. Here are few figures to show it in a nutshell. Five years ago only 5000 people a day rode on street ears.
 Today 1S,0oo Montgomerians take ride every. twenty-four hours. Five years ago the gross receipts from street car fares each year amount ed to only $75,oo0.
 For tho year just closed the total of street car fares footed up to the big
 amount of $362,o0o.
 Five years ago in Montgomery there
 were only sixteen miles of street rail- way track.
 Today there are in Montgomery forty and one.half miles of street car track and that portion of 1t included in the | original sitxeen miles has been rebuilt | almost throughout.
 Five years ago there was only one | park in Montgomery, a small one, Oak | Park. owned and maintained by the | city.
 Today there are two splendid modern | parks. equal to those of any city for | white people, modern baseball park | and good park for negroes. Five years ago there were only four | teen street cars in Montgomery. and such cars they were, too.
 Today in the dead of winter each
 day twenty-nine modern ears are op- erated. In the summer time probably twice that many are run. And of these cars a street railway man said: The poorest car in service in Montgomery | today is better than the best car which
 was in service here five years ago. The Convincing Figures. These are a few of tho figures which i show the certainty of Montgonery's wonderful growth, for in evidencing the street car development the growth of | the city, in the remarkable way ,s in | which 1t has progressed, there Is shown | too, how Montgomery has grown. It | can be truthfully said that MontgoIa- | ery's street car service is three times | larger, three times better and the sys- | tenn is worth three times as much as it was five years ago, And even when this is said. perhaps the whole truth | has not been stated.
 So that the stranger who comes to Montgomery and sees the moderate de- | velopment and improvement of the con- l gested business district would be as- tonished at the remarkable development | of the city which he does not know. | but which exists and which, for one
 thing, Is evidenced by the way the city's street car service has gone for | ward.
 "There is abut the street car busi-
 ness in Montgomery a feature which | few Montgomerians know or under
 stand" said W. H. Ragland, Vice Presi- dent and General Manager of the Mont- gomery Traction Company, which com pany owns and controls all the street l car sehvice of the city. Fewer people
 ride in Montgomery on street cars than in any other city of the South
 of it's size. The number of people who | ride is according to ali street car fig
 ures out of proportion to the total of the population. There Is a reason for l this. which can show. as 1t was shown to me Of course appreciated
 the congestion of Montgomery's busi- ness district as all oltizens of Mont gomery appreciated 1t but did not full ly understand that Montgomery was as thickly populated as iI is until I was shown some statistics by the editor oi
 The Advertiser in a conversation