The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-04-30

New York, April 3o-A $1,000, 100000
house cleaning-that is the record
breaking undertaking which Father
Knickerbocker is inaugurating this
spring, now that the season for such
work is at hand. New York, according
to the present plans, some Of which
are already under way. is to be put in
order for the accommodation of the
10000, 900 inhabitants expected by the
year 1925, and so colossal are the i'm
provements contemplated that 1t may
be more than fifteen years before the
$1,00O,o0o,OO0 which they will cost is
expended and the work completed.
The plans now taking form include
betterments and engagements in near
ly every field with which the munich
pality has to do. Perhaps the largest
single piece of work is that which will
supply this city with an adequate har-
Dor at a cost of something like $780,
100000. Operations are soon to begin
which will ultimately lead to the con-
version of the shadows and mashlands
of Jamaica bay into a sheltered har-
Dor, having an area Of twenty-five and
q quarter square miles and affordtng
hundreds of miles OF wharfage. That
vast track, half land and water, which
Is now given over exclusively to the
oysterman and the holiday fisherman,
is to be dredged into a harbor where
a great feet of the largest vessels Of
the future may comfortably dock. 1t
IS also proposed that this new harbor
OF New York be made the terminal of
the $10l, 900, 900 barge canal which is
now being dug across the state to link
up the Hudson river with the great
lakes. Additions and changes equally
important are planned in connection
with the city's means of transporta-
ton. 1t now seems certain that at the
buster points streets cannot continue
much longer to cross each other on
the same grade, and 1t is already pro-
posed to elevate or depress one Of the
two intersecting streets in such places.
Eventually the city will undoubtedly
become one Of different levels for even
now 1t is almost impossible to cross
certain of the more important thor
oughfares and the only solution seems
to lie In providing one level for north
and south traffic and another for that
moving east and west. Plans are also
under way for new subways which
may cost $20o,000,000 and Father
Knickerbocker will begin to accustom
himself this year to tunnel travel un-
der both rivers. Altogether the
changes now under consideration will,
when completed, fifteen or twenty
years hence. make the future New
York as different from the present
one as 1t is from the city of twenty
five years ago. And even then 1t is
unlikely that there can be any diminu-
ton in the work of housekeeping the
city.
Mourn BATTERY DAN"
Through the death Of Magistrate
Daniel Finn, better known as Battery
Dan," New York has lost probably the
most picturesque character In the po-
litieal life of the city. Battery Dan"
was one OF the last of the old-time
Tammany leaders who controlled, more
by Drawn than by brain. vast districts
of Manhattan, and for nearly quarter
of a century he has bossed the first
district--that is the lower west side
with it's mixed and crowded popula-
ton He was not the official leader
there during all this period. but he vir-
tually controlled the district. 1t was
while he was serving in the legislature
at Albany after service in the Civil
war that Battery Dan" received the
sobriquet by which he was generally
known. A New Jersey congressman
was seeking to have the lower section
Of Battery Park and its entire sea wall
conceded for the building OF wharves
and store houses for the use of cor
porations. Assemblyman Dan Finn de-
clared war on the proposition in the
name Of the tenement women and
children OF his district, who. he said
needed the green breathing spot more
sorely than any commercial scheme
could require it, He won the fight
and he has been Battery Dam to the
public ever since. 1t was In his ca
pacity Of magistrate, however, thai
Finn attracted most attention, and
ever since his appointment to that or
nee six years ago he has been widely
known for the homssy and sage utter