The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-11
SUMMER STREET CAR WOES
PROBLEMS THAT NEVER tRI>E
AT ANY OTHER SEASON.

TROUBLES Caused by visitors To tine sU> IN.
Party Prom PeckskIN VINO Ncrc Tw cn,,
Minutes observation-disclosures Visiting.
Mistakes Made nv ON Young Wonrn.
summer adds troubles peculiarly H.,
own 20 travel on tho street cars. There
was an example Of the sort ut Broadway
and Forty-second street the other morning.
Three women. carrying boAs' 81 hncn,
were awaiting the cur there. With them
were seven children Of varied ages. ~.
all under 10. One woman had a child 81
her arms.
II was still early enough for the car 10
be crowded with men going down town
TO business. 1t was not an easy job 10 III
ten more persons into a crowded csr. hut
the party were for that a and that Tar
only in spite OF the protests of the con.
ductor. who suggested that there might hc
more room in the next car.
We come down from Peekskill 10 spend
the day at Coney Island. one of the women
said. and we already lost twenty minutes
because the train was late. We don't
want to sit DOWN"
The children wriggled in among the
standing passengers. and the women.
clutching their boxes Of lunch still tighter.
managed to get a foothold. The laughter
Of the children and their obvious delight
in the excursion did not appease the men
who had their shoes trampled on, willis
the swaying youngsters made it impos-
sible for them to read their newspapers.
One Of the happenings on the uptown
trip of a Madison avenue car was typical
of the same Inconvenience Of summer
traffic. At the Grand Central Station a
woman and q lanky boy got on.
She had in her hand a rose geraniun
which had been taken up by the roots.
which we're wrapped in a piece OF news
paper. In the other a vas an unmis-
taxable jar Of pickles, also wrapped in news
paper. which had began to look so sus-
piciously damp about the top that there
was no doubt that the jar wA leaking.
The boy carried a bird cage and a paper
suit case.
or course the conductor ought TO have
been heartless and told the boy he could
not get on with all hat luggage. But the
conductors o let passengers bring into
cars any sort of boxes or luggage they
want. So this couple wedged themselves
in and the woman held on to the seat In
front OF her, as every movement OF rhe car
threatened to splash out the pickles.
They had ridden almost up to Eighty
sixth street when the woman called out 10
the conductor:
please. IL that's the right place 70 get on
for the depot that goes TO Rahway-Rahway,
New Jersey" she repeated.
She was good natured and her smile was
amisble even when the conductor told her
she had been riding for fifteen minutes in
thu ~rann Atroctiap Thar tiara nod 10
be a delay while the pickle jcr. he rose
geranium. the bird cage and the suit case
were landed safely in the street.
There 10 also more interchange OF visits
ghetto in the summer days. That does not
tend to improve the traffic situation on
Madison avenue. One Of the incidents that
happened on an East Side car the other
afternoon was typical.
A young woman. wasted and sickly,
her were FIVE children. the youngest still
at her breast and the oldest acting as a sort
OF little mother. Although their dress
showed no trace OF the great poverty some
times seen in the ghetto, il was painfully
untidy. The children with the exception
Of the little mother paid nothing, the real
mother handing the conductor two transfers
for the five.
They had no sooner crowded into a seat
than the largest child. produced four half
munched rolls covered with sticky sugar.
The children began to nibble them with
impartial disregard of the effect on their
own clothes or on those Of their neighbour.
The party was no more welcome on account
OF the presence OF a fish wrapped in news
paper carried in her lap by the mother.
There was no possible ground for c~onjec-
ture as to what was in the paper. 1t was
undoubtedly fish.
Cars are full Of EN- now said the con-
duotor. going up n down all day. They
haYA relatives 0r friQnAn and fhRv or nm
there to make an excursion to the park
together. In tho winter time you never
see EN-. but th,Y travel all day now" .
The conductors will tell you nowadays
the mistakes made by strangers who get on
the wrong car. The p~assengers, especially
the crusty bachelor ones, might be more
irritated than they are were 1t not for the
pleasing Southern voices hat often frame
the request for correct information about
1t would have taken a very soft. very
charming voice, however, to reconcile
the passenger of a trolley car to a delay
OF nearly five minutes the other day. There
was the usual drove of them-they usually
come to New York in d~roves-and they
numbered exactly nine. They were loaded
down with bags and suit cases and it soon
became known from the murmur Of their
conversation that they were bound for
Asbury Park.
They started in a direction that would
lead them to Central. although not to
Asbury. Park. They discovered the mistake )
when the conductor saw the transfers.
Collecting them and their luggage took a
long while, but they were much more good
'natured over the trouble and delay than the
scowling New Workers. who, perhaps, have
SO many transportation troubles of their own
all h time that they cannot stand this
extra summer strain.
JUST KICKED AT 4 CAT.