Arizona republican., 1908-11-12

on ltand the Value of Its Property
 Is Greater Than National Debt
 Was First Street in the Old Dutch
 Settlement.
 New York, Nov. Ire greatest
 street in the world is in America. London may have it's Strand and Piccadilly, Paris its Bois du Cologne and Champs Elysees and Berlin it's
 Unter den Linden. But viewed from any aspect except that of mere age, Broadway-New York's Broadway-is ahead of any two of them put to- gether." The words were spoken to- day by an American who has just returned from a trip of several months through Europe. but they may be taken as typical of the senti- ments of those who have had the opportunity of comparing the most celebrated thoroughfare in the United States with others more or less known to fame in foreign countries. Even the New Yorker who takes for grant, ed almost all the good and bad qualities of his city, grows enthusi- astic when Broadway is mentioned.
 The reason for this is easy to understand for those who know the long. irregular thoroughfare which runs from tip to tip of Manhattan Island. It is not merely that Broad way is the most important street in New York: it Is the epitome of New York. Other streets and sections have made more or less fleeting bids for popularity, but as the growth of the city has continued northward the famous old street has steadily main- tained its supremacy which is more firmly grounded now than ever be- fore It is significant that one never hears an actor singing Take Me Back to Fifth Avenue" It's always Broadway. For all that Fifth avenue has been written about and preached against its fame, like that of any fashionable street is transitory. Even in its palmiest days Fifth avenue represented nothing characteristic ex- cept wealth. Now business is rapidly driving out the costly residences, forcing them into side streets and to the newer fashionable sections further uptown. Almost the entire length of the avenue below Central Park is already given over to busi- ness and to the kind of business that keeps daylight hours-office buildings, wholesale salesroOms and retail shops. After nightfall it is comparatively silent and deserted.
 Broadway. on the other hand, lives every moment of the twenty four hours. When the daylight fades the electric lights begin to bathe it in their brilliant glow. Nowhere else in the world are such millions of lights used in outdoor illumination as along that two mile stretch of Broadway between Madison Square and Colum- bus Circle. which has come to be known as the Great White Way. And before the last of these lights has Winked itself out as the last of the all night crowd turns it's steps home ward-or more likely hotel ward-the glow is bright again in the east and a fresh army of toilers and pleasure seekers is rolling down Broadway to tatke up the burdens of another day.
 Broadway is a long street. It ex- tends from the southernmost tip of Manhattan to its extreme northern point when the Harlem and the Hud- son join to shut it off from the main- land. This is a distance of some fourteen or fifteen miles. As mat ter of fact the street retains it's name and identity all the way along the bank of the Hudson to Albany. 14O miles away. Along it's course within the boundaries of the island it exemplifies every activity of the city and nation of which it forms
 Ia fxTa along it and 10000,00 trips a day are made on foot and in vehicles along and below its surface. Thirty million business transactions involv- ing amounts from a penny to millions of dollars take place along it during every twenty-four hours. It is a business, shopping, theater, hotel and residence street and as many con- firmed Broadwayite has discovered 1t is possible to find almost every means of making and spending money within its limits.
 Beginning it's course at the Bowl ing Green, where the Dutch burghers of New Amsterdam smoked their evening pipes and sniffed the salt breezes coming up the bay, for the first half mile of its length Broadway is the street of Big Buisness. the homes of the trusts. Almost at its lower end. Number 26, Is the Stand ard Oil building, it's twenty floors devoted entirely to the activities of the great oil combination and its Along this part of the street are the offices of the big companies. the Steel corpo- ration, the Rubber trust and scores of other great aggregations of can- tai. Interspersed with these are banks, insurance companies, lawyers and brokers offices and all the varied machinery required in the operation of great financial undertakings.
 Further up. between City Hall Park and Union Square. Broadway runs the heart of the wholesale district For some two miles it is lined with great merchandising es- in which are gathered products of every part of the world. Above this in turn is the retail dis trict. The crowds which, further | town, consisted chiefly of men show | IS great a majority of women as soon as Fourteenth street is passed | md the big department stores which | nave succeeded the wholesale estab- | ishments are thronged with smartly |