The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-02-17

l. IL4JXGO AN L i /, i OAHs
ceipts Of that corporation. Then to add
to the shrinkage of receipts the jitne,
which is large box car attached tG
truck wheels capable Of accommodate
ing from dozen to 25 or more pas.
sengers, is permitted to operate on the
same streets provided with car lines
and considering the accommodations
provided it is really surprising the
number who prefer the jitney to the
street car. Probably there are tive
reasons for this preference. The jtney
fare is 5 cents, the street car fare is
8 cents. That is one, and an attractive
! reason for many people. Another reas.
on is the owenrs and operators of the
street car service do not stand very
high In the estimation OF the public
land there is large number who would
prefer to put up with any kind Of in
convenience rather than to contribute
nickel to the Washington Water
Power company. This combination of
inroads upon the passenger traffic OF
the Spokane street railroads Is notice.
able to one who has visited the city at
intervals during the past quarter of a
century, and his own experience in
regard to patronizing that method of
travel is further illustration of how
hard the auto has hit the street car
patronage. In olden days one become
quite an efficient strap hanger on the
street cars owing to the crowded con-
ditiOn of the cars. Nowadays the strap
could well be eliminated as there Is
seldom call for their use. Formerly
when visiting Spokane, street car
fares was one of the regular and not
incOnsiderable daily expenses that
went into the budget of the cost of
living. During the two months Of the
present visit We have been on a street
car but once.
OF course the street car is an indis-
pensible convenience to vast number
of people and no system of jitney SER
vice could give the public the same
accommodations, or easy, safe and
comfortable transportation. II through
lack Of patronage the street car sys-
TENS of Spokane would be forced to
suspend operations it would work a
tremendous hardship upon the public
and prove a serious back set to the
growth of the city, and such an unfor-
tunate situation might develop where
the jitney is permitted to operate on
the same streets, served by street cars.
The jitney is a very unprepossessing
vehicle. and the way they are operat-
ed does not contribute to their attract
iyeness as means of conveyance
They ace built to carry only q limited
number of passengers, but like the
street car there Is always room for
one more, and the sardine in its box
Is lonesome in its contact with q
neighbor as compared with the human
mass that not infrequently Grams into
q jitney.
Some cities encourage the jitney,
Spokane among the number, while
others restrict their services to certain
streets through which restrictions
they are not a serious competitor to
the street railroads. Mr.. Hans Lund
informed the writer that in Kansas
City jitneys are not permitted to Op-
crate on streets already served by the
street railways. and where introduced,
or attempted to be introduced on such
streets as do not have street car SER
vice it is necessary for the jitney own
er to secure petition signed by a
large percentage Of the residents upon
the street he wishes to operate upon
before the city authorities will issue
a permit. Those conditions are not
conducive to encouraging the jitney
business.
But it is condition and not a
theory, in the language of late Ia
mented public citizen. that confronts
the street railways of Spokane and
many other cities just at the present
time. and If some plan is not worked
out by which the receipts Of those
systems can be considerablely aug
mented in the course of time most OF
the street car corporations of the
country will be in the hands Of re-
ceivers or cease operations entirely
To those who have liyeu long wher.
the pedestrian does not clog up the
passageway, where the sround floor
window is not too frequently Swallowed
by the passerby, where the branching
of feet do not too hastily wear away
the walk, there is something fascinat-
ing in sitting at a vantage point in a
city of one hundred thousand odd
souls and watching the streams of hu-
manity drifting by. One may even feel
lonesome, for among all those hun
dreds of milling human ants never a
familiar face, yet the Kaleidoscope
changes of gait, form and feature
holds the eye and gives entertainment
to the mind as one meditates upon the
possible motives that quicken the
pace OF this one or clog the hating
steps of another, or wonders whence
they all came and whittier are they
going. In accordance with the immu.
table law of nature no two faces OF
forms are exactly alike, and male and
female the surging crowds are made
up of every walk of life. which inter.
preted means the rich and the poor
the handsome and the ill-favored, the
halt and the blind, the shabby and the
genteel, the swift and the laggard. the
young and the old, those with appar'
emily some object in view to stimulate
their quickened footsteps. others whit
| filter through the throng with aimless