New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-09
SUBWAY WINDOWS.

SUBWAY WINDOWS.
WHY is It that the windows OF sub
way cars are now always closed? All
summer they are open. A certain date
comes and they are all shut. 1t makes
no difference what the temperature Is;
shut they are when the day arrives on
which some mysterious authority de-
crees that they must be. Occasionally
one NAV be found down, but tnat Is
only when some passenger has suug-
gled successfully with device that ~
harder TO deal with than burglar
proof safe, dropping his hat, newspaper
and umbrella on the floor growing req
IN the face and breaking his finger
nails in the effort. Generally the pas
senger doesn't succeed, but falls into
his seat covered with peSpiration ana
curslng gently to himself, for tram
inc in housebreaking is almost lndis-
nensable to the opening Of these WIN
dows Even the guards on the trains,
axnerienced in the trade and armed
with great beams and levers, are I'M
able 70 get down more than two-thirds
Of them.
And when they are opened. Dang
the upper sash drops the whole uis'
lance. giving access to the entire CON
tents of the cave of the winds. Ihere
&c no midway about it. The window is
either shut tight or It is open wide. III
never occurred to the genius VINO de-
vised It that passengers might want 10
have It open an INCH or two at the Top
for the sake Of air and not want 10
LOT IN n gale that threatens to tear the
crown out of your hat. But does any
one who has anything to DO Win SUI
wovs ever think? This subject, now
ever, would lead us too far aheid' DE,
e,des ~ we ever got to expressing our
oniniops on the brains Of subway plan
ners we should say things that we
should afterward regret. 90.
ANYWAY. this expert, the architec'
Of the subway window, didn't thihh'
There is the monument 10 his dull VIII
Either YOU sit with It closed. inhaling
the foul and malodorous air OF al
oyercrowded car, or you open lt-that
is. II you have had practical training
az n second story maitland great
rusb Of wind assails you and every one
else who IS sitting near by. Perhaps
that is the reason why on a certain
date all the windows are closed ob-
stinately. wilfully and diabohcally
shut 70 stay 80 until decree comes
from the throne of wisdom that they
may be opened again. 1t Is the counsel
Of despair that has been followed the
bahituaI counsel which subway oper-
otors adopt. The intelligence or the
mana cement having striven nightly
with the question whether to have no
air at all or all the winds OF heaven,
or the internal regions-wherever the
wind that infests the subway comes
from-haye decided that 1t must be no
air at all. o.,
So in the rush hours 80 persons SIT
and stand and try to breathe through
ventilators designed to afford breath
to fifty. It is no wonder that the ven
tilators don't work. They have rights
which even subway operators are bound
to respect. They lie down on the job
They, for their part at least, refuse to
he overcrowded. SO you sit, or more
likely stand, and swelter, faint with the
common poison. feeling each moment
is likely to be your last, but finaily
emerge alive, proving how hard thing
1t is to kill a straphanger. And all be-
cause It never occurred to any one that
you might like to open subway win
dow an inch or two and not a foot and
a half. All Of which considerations are
respectfully offered to the attention of
the Public Service Commission, body
which does think, In the hope that II
may excogitate window that VIII
open a little way and without Jimmy.