Year: 1876




car from any person not provided with seat.
Its several clauses give effect to this pro-
vision. This is in the right direction; but the
bill is incomplete, because in the absence of
any authority with general control over these
corporations the declaration that they 'shall
place sufficient number of cars on their
line leaves them to judge what number is
sufficient and defeats the law in vital point.
There are some inconsistencies also. Thus
1t is forbidden to take passenger on full
car but if passenger gets on another sec
tion of the law gives him rights on the car
that the conductor must respect 1t was
supposed, doubtless, that despite the rule
that passengers should not be taken when
the car was full, they would be taken, and
that the provision against collecting fare
from them would be effective in preventing
violations of the other clause but it results
from these provisions that under one clause
7 conductor would be required to resist the
endeavor of passenger to get on when the
car is full, and under the other he would ex-
! pose himself to suit for the attempt to put
! such a passenger off. These little difficult
ties could be- readily enough sifted out
of the bill, however and, so improved, it
would be a substantial benefit to the public
All this difficulty of passengers and seats
would perhaps be best covered by clear
! provision forbidding undera specified penalty
the carrying on any car, at any one time of
more passengers than there are seats. If a
car has twenty-four seats it would be viola
tion of the law for it to have twenty-five pas
sengers on board at any one time.


There is great likelihood that such rule,
if ever it can be put into operation, will be
regarded as a restraint and grievance from
the standpoint of that sort of popular i'm
patience that can never wait for the ferry
boat to get up to the bridge. People whose
haste impels them to jump for the boat
while she is still six feet away, though a very
little thought will satisfy them that the man
who is last on board gets across the river as
soon as any one, will clamor against any
system intended to secure the general con-
venience. Already, indeed, we have heard
from quarter where good sense was thought
to be very much at home protest against
depriving people of the right to hold on by
a strap Let us confess that we have no par
ticular respect for that right and that, as
between the rights of the very impatient
gentleman who wants to hold on by strap
and the rights of the twenty or more persons
who wish to be seated comfortably, and do
not want that gentleman dancing a hornpipe
on their toes, we are for the rights of the
! twenty or more. How the public deal with
cases of this sort results very much from
education People must remember that our
proposition does not require merely that the
public shall wait for the next car, but it re-
| quires also that the next car shall be not more
than two or three minutes behind. If a man
will not wait two minutes for his own con-
| venience and comfort, he should be COM
! PEELED to respect to that extent the conven-
fence and comfort of the twenty -four who
are actually in possession and who are also
part of the public. In very little while
people would get over the eager and unnec-
essary haste that now impels them to ride
any way rather than wait and ride comfort
ably. In Paris this system works admirably.
No one pretends to stop an omnibus when
the sign that it is full is put up, and the
conductors do not pretend to stop in such
cases; yet all passengers are accommodated; !;
the omnibuses are wonderfully prosperous !;
for everybody rides when sure of comfort ;
there is no complaint and no one has
grievance. AS things now are with us any
one of the greater street car companies gets
on with from three-quarters to two-thirds
the number Of cars necessary to properly ac-
/ ~ itc
pack them In as it pleases. Forbidden to
pack them in, it would have the option of
losing thousands of fares or providing cars
to carry them; and it would provide those
cars, there is no doubt


Mr.. Killians bill does not leave them
such an option, and, perhaps. his plan is
better. He provides that they shall be COM
PEELED to have a sufficient number of cars,
and it is necessary to designate how such
sufficiency shall be determined. 1t is, more
ever, necessary to have the whole adminis-
tration of these lines made distinctly subject
to some part of the city government or the
police, which should be charged with the
determination of all such points. In the
absence of such a control we would suggest
that all fines for carrying an excess of pas
sengers shall be given by law to the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,
and the President of that society be author
lied to sue for and recover them. BY that
means the penalty would not become a
farce, and Mr.. Bergh who, we fear has
never fully appreciated our sympathy with
him or our efforts to help him, would have
a splendid field opened to him for saving
the horses and serving the public


OuR PATRIOTIC ALDERMEN yesterday adopted
a series of resolutions directing, as far as
their power extends, and requesting as far
as it does not, the observance of Washing
tons birthday by the citizens of New York