Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-08
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

A citizen signing himself simply
John" to letter printed in The Star
Of February g.
SCreeC Gar seats 1881, discusses the
and Gallantry. question aoo6 OF street
tions as follows:
"A short time ago I noticed In the
columns of your wide-awake and use
full paper the valuable suggestion to
the effect that when the street cars
could not furnish seats for passengers
and chose to take them in on the
stand, they should not receive pay.
Exactly so. A man pays for q seat
and ought to have it. The conductor
should know when his car is full and
should admit no more than it can ac-
commodate. In England, where these
matters are regulated by law, when q
car Is full the conductor turns out a
placard: thus, No room When a seat
Is vacated the card is Immediately dis
placed. In this way travelling Is made
comfortable. It Is a penny-wise policy
that suggests the idea Of taking In all
who come along. Hundreds of tired
pedestrians would occupy the street
car If they could be comfortably seated.
Apropos-let me just call attention to
another point, of yet greater vexation.
A poor tired man gets seat with some
difficulty. Presently come five or six
ladies. They know the car is full.
What Of that? Some one viii give
way, and in they crowd. The astute
conductor calls out, Pass up, gentle
men, and let the ladies In Where
are we to pass? It only means, Get
up and let the ladies sit down. And
d.,
their graceful forms and gracious
we poor fellows are jumping to our
feet, oh, thank you, don't get up
keep your seat!' which only means, 7
want your place right now This Is
no joke. I have experienced it very
often. don't think people should force
themselves into crowded car. If they
will, they ought to do as did the
Dutchmans hen, sit standing For
nv part, I have made up my mind to
hold my seat hereafter"
X
would It not be practicable and
would it not be cheaper also for the
Fire Engines as ties," says vs. The Star
Snow Cleaners. % % t clear Tie snow snow;
from the street crossings by thawing
with steam instead of by shoVeling,
which they have heretofore relied upon?
The trouble with the latter plan Is that
1t Is only jndifferently done and IL Is
only q question of very short time
when the sleighs and other vemcleS
carry the shoveled snow back again INTO
the clean spaces, making the Slush ana
dirt there Just about as bad as 1t was
before. And to cart it away costs more
than the public purse can afford. On
the other hand, If steam from the pipes
of the steam fire engines could be
turned on each crossing for q few min
uteS the work of cleaning would be both
complete and permanent, and the cost
Of that process need not be very great.
The firemen are paid anyway, the exer-
else of the horses will be beneficial
rather than otherwise. and the only
additional expense will be the slight
cost of fuel necessary to get up the
required steam. This, We imagine, Will
be much less than the pay of laborers
who do the work of Shoveling under
the old system. At any rate we should
like to see the experiment tried"
* X
Washington's telephone subscribers
were not allayed by statements Of the
-, National Capital Telephone
khone Co. so years ago regarding
po4o, the proposed schedule of new
A~ateo' rates and held a fully at
tended indignation meeting at which
resolutions were adopted. The next
day, February 8, 1881, The Star said:
"The subscribers to the telephone exc
change who have revolted against the
new schedule of largely increased prices
by the company are very much
In earnest, as shown in their action
last night. They agreed almost unani-
to abandon the use of the tele-
phone If the new rates were insisted
upon. The company declare that they
are losing money at the present rates
and must make the increase in order
to save themselves from wreck. OF
course, they know their own business
best, but it certainly seems strange that
with the present high value of their
stock, based on their present rates, they
cannot make their investment pay q
fair interest without increasing the
rates to q sum far beyond what the
think the value of the instru-
mems is to them. They had better