Year: 1872

4 Uaty without Means ef Transit-


The steppage % the Railroad Lines.


There is q panic in the city-A sscorner'' on
the street not on one street alone. but on all
our streets and avenues; not caused by the
operations of bulls and bears, but by the un-
Railroad stock is down-with the hippoma-
laria, the epizooty, or whatever other name
may be used to designate the disease which
has recently attacked and put hors de combat
the noble animal to which we are indebted for
our present means of transit through the island
of Manhattan and the suburbs across the
water. The singular spectacle has been pre-
sented to us of great city almost at q stand
still; of thousands of persons. male and
female, young and old, unable to reach their
homes after a day Of toll except on foot and
of other thousands who might be fortunate
enough to secure conveyance packed and
cramped and squeezed into cars in
manner neither conducive to health
nor to the safety Of property. Yesterday
the Avenue @, the Ninth Avenue and the
Belt lines of railroad stopped running alto
gether, the other companies all withdrew more
or less of their cars, and the Third Avenue
line-one of the most important in the city to
the laboring population-ran with less than
one-third of its customary force, and will
to-day, probably, disappear entirely from the
road until the sickness ceases. The disease
seems to be spreading with alarming rapidity,
and one after another Of the unfortunate ami
mails has been placed on the invalid list and
sent into hospital. The several companies,
with an eye to their profits. have persisted in
keeping up the traffic over their routes as well
as they could; but yesterday tho humane ply
sician, DR.. Bergh stepped in to the relief of
the jaded, worn-out animals, and insisted that
those laboring under the disease should be with
drawn entirely from work. Asa majority Of the
cars were dragged slowly along by horses more
dead than alive this order, of course,
caused havoc among the lines. The
streets presented singular appearance
especially about the hour of the
cessation of work, when hundreds of men
and women were gathered at the ends Of the
routes and on the corners of the roads eagerly
seeking an opportunity to cling to o starting
or passing car or to crowd into stage, and
for the first time in the history Of the city
our miserable deficiency in the means Of tran
sit came thoroughly home to the understanding
of the people


The first practical question which presents
itself in this singular and unfortunate crisis
! u.s. What can be done to relieve the immediate
difficulty and to enable our large population
living at distances to procure some means
of conveyance to and from their places
of occupation? It is impossible to cal
culate upon the length Of time we shall be
without sufficient horse power to run more
than o fraction of the customary cars along
the several routes, and we have no security
that this means of travel may not cease
| altogether. If we had dummy engines at
command we might find way out of the per-
plexity, for, as there would be no horses to
alarm, there could be no objection to their
use AS we have not we must look elsewhere
for relief, and this we can find only in the
rivers which run on each side Of the city.


Plenty of steamboats, can be procured to make
trips every half hour or every fifteen minutes
along the North and East Rivers, stopping at
convenient points along the route; and this, we
believe, would furnish the readiest and best
means of transit for our uptown population
that could on tho instant be devised. There
are landings that can be used every few
blocks and there are enough unemployed
steamers to form q sufficient feet until the
horses have time to recruit. According to
present experience this need only be the work
Of few days, for one of the stage lines which
wisely withdrew all its horses on the first ap-
pearance Of the disease now reports all its ami
mails convalescent, and has resumed its regu-
lar trips If, therefore, we can procure steam
boat accommodation for q week or ten days,
so far as we can at present foresee, the diff
Guilty will have disappeared, the object of the
humane DR.. Bergh will have been accom-
plished, the stables will present clean bill Of
health, and the horse cars will again be run
ming as dirty, inconvenient and Objectionable
as ever. The experiment. too, may be pro-
ductive of permanent benefit; for it is GER
tain that up to the present time we
have neglected to make as good use
as we may Of our splendid water
privileges. There is no reason why
we should not have large fleet Of cheap
river steamers plying along both sides Of the
city, similar to those on the Thames, in Lon
don, and carrying our people to their homes
with greater speed and comfort than can ever
be secured on the horse railroads The Har-
lem boats are only an apology for such con-
veniences, but they are enough to illustrate
the advantages they present and to open the
eyes of our people to the folly Of not availing
ourselves of our two splendid rivers as
means of citv travel.