The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13


 for the past year show q slight increase in the earnings of each car per mile. the figure as given being just fraction under 26 cents per car mile.
 Make Businesn Blocks.
 The anuouncement that two more blocks of Fifth Avenue in the heart of what was only a few years ago the most exc7usfve section of wealthy homes in the city are to be converted to business uses marks another step in the rapid passing of this thorough-' fare as a fashionable residence street :. For several years the homes which once lined the avenue from the nSgnifcent Washington Arch to the lower end of Central Park have been steadily dis appearing and this movement has pro- ceeded more rapidly since big depart- nent stores began to invade the once sacred precincts. It Is known that one of the two blocks just sold Is to be used as the site for local dry goods emporium. now located further down. town, and 1t is rumored that the other has been acquired by a famous Chicago mercantile establishment which has often been reported as about to invade New York. In five years more, it is predicted by real estate men, there will not be a dozen private residences in all Fifth Avenue below Eifty-ninth Street. Even, the wealth of multi millionaires cannot withstand the en- croachments of business, and they are being driven further uptown or into the side streets, whither tha fashion able clubs that formerly had houses on the avenue are following them. For time there was 6 tendency to build big, luxurious hotels on Fifth Avenue, but this has ceased. Hotel visitors find the brilliancy Of Broad way and the convenience of it's great hotels to theatres and transportation lines preferable to Fifth Avenue, which Is dim and comparatively deserted after nightfall. and from which 1t is more inconvenient to reach either the busi. ness or amusement centers. Students of the city's history point out that Fifth Avenue has just about completed what seems to be the allotted span of any fashionable residence section in New York. which is confined to a single generation.
 GrOund Scraplng.
 Having acquired the record for sky seraping construction, New York is now after one of exactly the opposite sort. Not content with having build ings which reach further above the earth's surface than any others. the city now proposes to have one which goes further below the surface line than any now existing. New York in a word is after the ground -scrapinQ, record and plans are already comnIets ed for building which in addition to having forty-three stories above ground will also have six underground stories all devoted to business. 1t will reach 536 feet above ground and sev. enty-eight feet below it. This means that this record-breaking ground scraper will be a water scraper, too. since it will go far below the water line. Its underground construction ship. since should 1t spring a leak it might quickly fill with water. For this reaso the walls will be made of steel to prevent the %Iing of nails on which to hang pictures Another strange fea- ture of this ground-scraper will be the placing of the boiler room and heating plant on the third and fourth floors instead of below ground, as has heretofore been the practice. It will be rather a new sensation even for New York. when this building is com. pleted. to take an elevator down to an office instead of up. All six floors be- low the street level will be devoted Go business offices aggregating nearly two acres in space. There will not be sufficient wood in this remarkable building to make even a toothpiek.
 Famous Light Gone.
 Within a single week New York has lost two of its most famous marine possessions. each Of which has been talked of in every country in which English is spoken. After fifty years of continuous service the Sandy Hook Flagship has extinguished forever the light which for half a century has been the guiding mark for incoming Hrha Nafgrgn0 ayaaaaIa fa kh0