Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1913-04-04
NEW yopK;o TIVE sHoNoRED VEHICLE

wN PARIS recently they held flu
neral for the last of the horse
omnibuses. Three thousand peo-
pie. some in motor cars and 9TH
ers on foot and wearing crepe,
formed in the Place st. Sulpice and
marched in solemn procession behind
q bus that was making its last jour-
ney as public conveyance in the
city streets. They hung magnificent
wreaths about the old-timer, and twice
the legal allowance of thirty-four pas
sengers crowded aboard for the last
trip. An automobile, draped in black,
followed close behind splitting silver
paper tears as it went, and that night
every music hall revue included a
song in it's program that was sup
posed to be sung by the last conduc-
tor. the last driver, or one OF the
last two horses.
1t will not be long before New York
may have an opportunity to perform
similar rites in honor of the horse car,
for that time-honored vehicle which
has stubbornly refused to die these
many years is destined soon to disap-
pear from our streets. VIII New
York deign to pay its respects to that
last horse car after the fashion OF the
Parisians with their latelamented
horse bus? 1t is possible, but I'M
likely
Ashamed Of Them.
New York is just a bit ashamed of
The longevity OF its horse car. That
che second largest city in the world
still travels in a vehicle that would
be booted at in many less preten-
dous western town, has been pointed
,ut SO presistently that it has
begun to hurt. 1t is doubtful If New
York will mourn = at any rate
in public the passing of the
horse car. There are too many
strangers in town who have come on
from the west to cape at the subway
and remain grinning on the sidewalk
as some jingling relic OF the f1fties
goes clambering along West street.
few there may be, however. who
really might feel pang of regret at
neying through Manhattan's streets.
To them, it would mean the passing of
an institution that did all that could
De expected of it. and did it well. too,
In the days when New, York was not
so dreadfully grown up. So long as
the city did not demand the impossi-
BILE, the horse car carried people to
business in the morning. and home in
the evening: and 1t took them to the
theaters at night in manner that met
all the requirements of the day and
age. But in these pay as-you-enter
days ii doesn't even pretend to be
able to fulfil its share of the contract
tract
You will have to excuse me-" II
seems TO say, as 1t journeys through
the thick OF the waterfront traffic
these days. Il used TO be able to dt
your transportation work. but you've
grown altogether too fast for me and
! can no longer manage you. So take
your subway express or taxi or your
Fifth avenue motor bus, and leave me
alone, I'll not be here to disgrace YOU
much longer"
The horse car that says this to you
IS almost the identical horse car thai
supplied rapid transit on nearly al
the main thoroughfares fifty or sixty
years ago. Its style hasn't changed
much. II you board one today. yot
are very likely to find that you are
even being driven by an ancient whC
has been a horse-car driver most o
his life. There's old George Lent who
ar the venerable age of sixty-nine, il
still commander-in-chief of his car OF
the Belt Line that runs along the wa
terfront from the Battery to Fifty
fourth street In the forty-three year.
that Lent has been a driver, he hal
had only the one route. and 1t il
said he can tell what street he i
driving past, even with his eye
closed just by the feel" OF it, Mat
thew Herman is another Herman i
seventy years old, and apparently a
male as ever, at the end of thirty-fou
years Of horse-car driving along Yves
street.
But the veteran OF them all is Ma!
thew F. Murphy. or Matt" Murphy. a
ne Is called, who began to drive
horse car on Third avenue on apr
l. 1865, and is still driving his ca
today along the East river water
front In little more than a month
Matt win celebrate his forty -sevent
year as driver. and although he /