Year: 1874

Rapid transit.


The question Of rapid transit has been re-
duced to this proposition We must either
make New York worthy of the metropolis or
we shall have the metropolis spreading itself
over the outlying banks of the rivers and the
bay. We cannot build city in the clouds, nor
would our habits of life and thought permit
us to build one like Vienna, where half mill
ion of people are compressed into smaller
space than Newark. We want air and sun
shine and wide, open spaces, and. although
there is no more reason why people should
not dwell in the isolation of apartments any
more than in the isolation of houses, there is
something in the absolute possession of
home gratifying to the patriotic American
mind. His free soul Graves o chimney and
an alley, his own particular woodshed and
window. The result is that Manhattan Island
is rapidly becoming the home of millionnaires
and wharf rats The business part of the city
has long since been abandoned as home.
Citizens of moderate means who desire to see
the green grass and running water and
smokeless skies fly over to Brooklyn and the
Jerseys. Yet the most attractive spots on
this coast are in the upper part Of the
! island and the lower part Of Westchester.
No one cares about crossing river as part
of his daily duties We cannot hurry across
ferry to keep business engagement in the
morning or dinner appointment in the even
ing. A journey over the ferry has twenty
teasing annovances that we do not deliber-
AL. :.xk> g. k1,o 10
ticket man, who looks like an exile from
society the flower girl, the gum candy boy,
the swarm of newspaper gamins, who add
new terror to the journey by forcing local
journals upon us; the man who will smoke
and the lady who never finds seat and dis
courses loudly about the polteness of the men
in her day; the desperate man, who jumps
before the chain is down. and the industrious
employe, who begins to sweep as soon as the
boat is full: oil of these individuals and Incl
dents combine to destroy the comfort Of life
over the water When to this we add the fog,
the snow and the ice the measure is complete.
Yet Notwithstanding these discomforts the
policy Of our city and State is so narrow that
every inducement is really offered to citizens
to abandon New York and create cities else
where.


Accordingly we have very large population,
city in itself, divided into Newark, Brooklyn,
Williamsburg. Hoboken, Jersey City and SO
on, that really belongs to New York. Here
the people do business, and labor and earn
money. But the money they earn, which
should be as much the capital Of the city as
Broadway and Fifth avenue, is carried away.
! New York is drained of her wealth and her
| population, and in violation Of the laws of
growth and progress five had been governed
for the last twenty years by statesmen, in
spired with policy like that which has given
| us Central Park, we should have on this
island more than million of souls. The
poor man could leave his pleasant fower-em-
powered cottage in the morning, near Yonkers
or New Rochelle, and be at his place of labor
in half hour Swift trains would fly over
ground and under ground. Communication
would be as rapid and as frequent as between
Jersey City and Newark, and the city would
become more and more attractive to hun
dreds Of thousands who would gladly make
this island their home and contribute of
their substance and store to the grandeur
and wealth of the metropolis. As it is
the city has become paralyzed by stoppage
of circulation. The millionaire may live on
the splendid avenues, the wretchedly poor
may swarm around the wharves. While Brook
lyn and Jersey City are growing prodigiously,
New York limps and pants like one stricken
with palsy or sure decay. We see that our
neighboring cities mean to hold their domin-
ion. Brooklyn has enterprise enough to build
bridge with our assistance which will make
Prospect Park much nearer to the HERALD
Office than Central Park. If we continue this
wretched, makeshift, depressing policy New
York will simply become q warehouse. Home
will be found elsewhere.


! What we want is q splendid, imperial city,
worthy of the metropolis Of America. In the
beginning let us have rapid transit That is
the most pressing want. Let the city become
interviewer, as it were, with all of its suburbs.
Let us have railways over the roof-tops,
under the streets-everywhere Let us have
bridges, it necessary, over the rivers; because
we rejoice in the progress Of our sister cities
as heartily as we do in our own. Then sur
round the lower part of the island with
system of docks worthy of our commerce. If
we only had statesmen who would begin this
work and plan out series of needed i'm
provements the people would submit to any
taxation to pay for them. Every dollar paid
in taxes would return twentyfold. Heretofore
we have given our money to thieves who
squandered it. Let us only have wise men
who will spend it in railways docks, wharves,
highways and boulevards, and hundred mill
ions will be placed at their command without
o murmur.


The Overlooking Mfssfssfppi.