The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-04-21
The Old World Can Teach
America Much.
PUBLIC CONVENIENCE IS GOAL
IN Many ways People of Various
European Countries Receive Ret
ter Treatment Than Those of the
United States-Danish Telephone
Kiosk Ideai-spOtIess Conductors.


Stars and Stripes? Why, then. these re-
curing series of articles on Things they
do better In Eur0pe?' The Spectator finds
that these perRicious creeds insensibiy af-
feet his patriotic point of view. Not many
days ago the eXigencies of the Boston
rapid transit system stranded him at Il
certain transfer station called Roxbury
crossing. The day was wild one; the
wind drove the dust ia singing particles
into the Spectators unfortunate eyes.
just before him two employees of the
street railway company We're engaged ia
sweeping out switches. At every stroke
of their brooms a fresh cloud Of germ
laden dust was consigned to the breeze,
to be waited to the eyes and threats Of
the transferees. 20 whom came neither
cars nor rumors Of cars. over the Spec
tators mind there flashed a vision OF the
way they DO switch-clearing IN Europe;
how q man armed with q dirt plow-a
pointed steel implement shaped to fit the
rails-walks the track, pushing his little
rail-eleaner before him at the end of a
broomstick; how the dust gathers in
pan behind the pillow; how at intervals the
man dumps it beside the track in neat
piles; how another man with a cart fol-
lows and takes the dust away At the
thought there rose in the Spectators mind
traitorous doubt whether after all We
are the cIeve-est nation under the sun, as
We have long fondIy believed.
The CIatterIess Milk Cart.
Before the taste of the pavement was
out OF his mouth. the Spectator had re-
called "A number of foreign arrangements
which he would Ike to see copied at
home He remembered the clatterless
milk cart of Hamburg thing ike a hose
truck. with bright brass cans swinging
/ silently from hooks along the sides. Then
there was "a sliding change tray in the
! booking Office at Hanover tray with
| ribs like a washboard, on which the most
obstinate coin could not c0ntrive 10 stick
You put your money on il and slide 1t
through to the ticket seller, and he slid it
back with the tickets and change. The
/ Spectator bethought him OF a morning in
Copenhagen when DE watched the mail
collector making his round. The man
jerked open a pouch. hung it on hooks in
the bottom of the mail box, and turned a
crank Presto, the letters pumped all
/ together into his bag. and the collector
was off in less time that 1t would have
taken an American carrier 10 gather ia
/ his first handful. That post box dumped
like a dump cart. Truly. beautiful sim
/ plieity-one of the things one wonders at
not having thought OF before. But what
was It doing In Scandinavia. so far from
/ the resoureefuI land of the free2
J Yes. be il patriotic or not, the Spectator
/ feels Impelled 10 add his contribution 20
the list Of things they do better in Eu-
rope. It's not inventions alone that he
would like 10 import lie would Ike t.
see on the back OF every American school
child a comfortable knapsack like those
I'm which the little students OF the Old
( World habitually carry their books. Why
drag down the young shoulders and
cra1np the gait OF our schOol-going boys
and girls when they might wear their
burden where Christian wore his, and be
as free as air? The Spectator would like
to bring over. too. certain kind OF park
bench which had the merit of being all
ways empty for the accommodation of
[ tired strangers.
Danish Telephone hiOBlks.
II the Spectator had his choice which
! OF all the Old World institutions he would
bring over TO New York he thinks he
should choose that omnium gatherum OF
iconveniences-the Danish telephone kiosk
Suppose that at the four corners Of Union
Square there stood neat summer houses
each with brisk and capable little
woman inside IL waiting TO furnish The
hurrying New Yorker with postage stamps
or postals land the opportunity to write
the same on the premises, If il suited his
turn. to send kilograms. reserve theateI
tickets. and give him the use OF pay
/ phone. Think of the saving of time. tho
temper. and the legs! Kongens Nytorv, in
! Copenhagen, is fitted up like that. In
deed. it must be shock TO an imported
scandinavian, of whatever persuasion
when he finds that in New York he must
either call messenger or travel several
city squares TO send "a telegram. In
Christiania dispatches are simply dropped
into a box on the side of the first street
car that comes along, there being a uele-
graph Office at every trolley station. And
really, when one comes 20 think of it,
why not?
! AOUEluET the DdllLbiQ littttlttt tiNNettt-
tages of a European street car. The
Spectator does not remember whether the
convenience was common 10 all German
towns. but he knows that in HAMBURG
there is q bright-faced clock in every car
This enables the passenger to fidget intel
Hgently when bent on catching train
Tie Spectator doubts whether the lizzie
brass detention pens for lighted cigars
that he saw on Danish street cars could
be with success attached to the back plat
forms of our own trOlleys. for he does moi
believe that even the ocular demOnstra
ton OF a number would satisfy an Ameri
can that he had his own. and not anOth-
er's cigar
4 Mechanical Announcer.
But In the Norwegian capital the cars
thad a benefcent and improbable device
for announcing the next stop. The Spec
tator has no notion how the thing worked
except that it was a cylinder with a scroll
running round it. and that periodically il
Topped over with loud. premonitors
click Probably the mot0rman controlled
it, since the Spectator could not detect
j he agency of the conductor. How The
Spectator blessed It as it uarolled before
him those queer Norwegian street names
which appeal so frankly to the American
eye, so obscurely to the American ear
Why not an arrangement like that OF
the electrics of Broadway?
And the foreign conductors-if the Spec
tator could only import them. The
thought moves him almost u the point Of
tears Little would he care whether Il
was the blue blass-bound kind of Ger
many. who say please. pretty, wheT
they demand your fare. salute you If yot
ask a question and dismount before yor
when the car stOus. or The OVeraWing