Springfield Weekly Republican

DRAWBACKS OF RAPID TRANSIT IN NEW YORK.

If next year's statistics of insanity in New York show a frightful increase above the average, if the adversary of souls reaps a bigger harvest henceforth on account of a sudden increase of profanity, the residents along the line of the newly-opened elevated railway, at least, will have a satisfactory theory to account for these calamities. Deep and loud are the maledictions on this new contrivance of rapid transit by all the inhabitants along its border from Trinity church to the park. For 19 hours a day the din of passing trains is almost continuous. Shop-keepers cannot bargain with their customers because of the noise, sleep is dispelled from the weary eyes of the overhead tenants, while domestic privacy is violated by the passage of the trains on a level with the best suites of rooms. Another disagreeable feature is the smoke and cinders which whirl through the casually-opened doors and windows along the route, smooching everything they touch. Sometimes the cinders are living coals, and then they set the store awnings afire, or perhaps burn holes in the curtains and carpets. The property-owners are naturally quite frantic over the situation. Along upper 6th avenue are many expensive apartment houses which are nearly ruined for purposes of habitation. The tenants clamor, and will not be comforted, and the distracted landlords are fearful of their wholesale exodus elsewhere. Trade in the stores is also injured. The sharpness of the grievance, say the Gotham optimists, is due to its newness. Time will attune the unaccustomed ears of the 6th avenue people to the racket and make them tolerant of the other little discomforts of the new railway. But that the nuisance is serious cannot be gainsaid, and it seems probable that some substantial mitigation will ultimately be found. Rubber cushions for the ties to still the noise are suggested, as well as an appliance for the consumption of smoke and cinders. The successful introduction of these improvements would reduce the objections to the new method of city locomotion to a minimum.