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Show I A Very Much Greater JVebv JorK, A JWebv Erie Canal I n? Broadtvay -the Spotless Canyon. 1 (Special Correspondence.) M Now and then Now York takes a fow minutes M to sit back and think over the things it has done M and is doing and realizes what an energetic and M enterprising sort of a place it is. There was a fl time about ten years ago when Chicago was M claiming the credit of leadership in big things M with good reason. But ten years have made a H big difference and Chicago will have a merry m time to keep the pace set by the awakened me- M ' tropolls. The streets aro all torn up with the M things that are being done and millions are be- H ing poured out in a way that makes the man from M Europe fairly gasp when he learns the figures. M When it was voted only a few years ago to fl spend $35,000,000 for a rapid transit tunnel road H New Yorkers thought they were doing something H that would enable them to sit back for a while H and wait for others to catch up. When one thinks H of it the tunnel now almost done is a great un- H dertaking. A four-track railroad about ten miles H long, underground, is entitled to consideration H among the wonders of the world. But that was H only the beginning. Now the Pennsylvania rail- H road is running a tunnel under the Hudson river H to bring its trains into the metropolis and the H Long Island railroad is pushing another under the H East river to connect with it, while plans have H been drawn for a bridge further up across the H East river the whole structure to enable tho H Pennsylvania to run its trains from the west right H to Boston, without being interrupted by water. H The Baltimore and Ohio and other roads are not H behind and are driving another tunnel to the end H on Manhattan island, while the Jersey trolley H lines and the Brooklyn trolley lines are drilling H I two more under the East river. M The old Brooklyn bridge, upon which visitors H used to be taken by the proud New Yorker, is no H longer a matter for wonder. Right at the side of M it a huge steel structure is throwing its span H across the river. A little further up, towers aro H being erected for a still bigger one, ana rurtner Q ' still another is to span tho river across Black- M well's Island. H Such conditions have awakened even the H sleepy old New York Central road from its torpor H and it has put aside $25,000,000 to build a big H station and tunnel to enter the city from tho M north. On top of that tho Rapid Transit board Is H insisting on another tunnel for the oast side, new H elevated lines and double decks to the ones in H As to builders one who was here ten years H ago would hardly recognize the old place now. H From the batteiy up tho skyscrapers have been H shooting from twelve to twenty-six stories into H the air and all of Broadway has undergone a H transformation. Two department stores jumped H from Fourteenth street to Herald Square, a dls- H tance of a mile from tho shopping district last H fall, and tho newspapers aro now deserting old H Printing House Square and going from four to live miles northward to get into the heart of Man-nattan. Man-nattan. Business has pushed up llfth avenue almost al-most to the street in which Delmonico and Sherry Sher-ry sought a refuge a few years ago from the rush of vulgar trade. The Rialto has taken another jump upwards of hall a mile as the big business Blocks havo pushed the theatres up to Longacre Square and even to tho Circle at Fifty-ninth stieet, which was practically a wilderness ten years ago. Big hotels and apartment houses are being erected to accommodate tho hosts who are coming hero trom tho rest of the country to live and spend money as it should be spent, while the city is reaching tar up f into Westchester and out into Long Island and Jersey to llnd homes lor its workers. There are a lot of things that will bear improvement, im-provement, but as the Englishman said, "It will be the greatest place on earth when it is finished." fin-ished." t v fc The state is not being lett behind in the movement, either, for all that the constitution enables to hayseeds to control the legislature. A bill has just been passed which will submit to the people at the next election the proposal to spend $101,000,000 in rebuilding the Erie and Cham-plain Cham-plain canals. Ot course the farmers don't want to do any such thing and the railroads aie bitterly opposed to it. but a long campaign Dy uie merchants mer-chants ot the city has at last been effective. It is proposed to widen and deepen the watenvays so that they will carry barges of 1,000 tons capacity, capa-city, which will be operated by electricity. The Idea, ot course, is to give even more trade (o the port of New York. There have been well founded charges that the railways were not overanxious over-anxious to build up the metropolis and that a great deal of trade has been sent to Boston, Philadelphia Phil-adelphia and Baltimore that should have passed through New York. With the canals operating, big barges tho tide will be turned the otiier way, lor the great treight carrying steamers on the lakes will go to Buffalo and transfer their cargoes car-goes to the canal boats and they will be able to come right to the sides of tho steamships which take the freight to Europe. 5 & t The gamblers are having an uneasy time of it nowadays. Inspector McClosky at the head of the detective bureau has sot out to give New York a taste ot real reform and the sporting fraternity has had a shock that has sent a lot of them flying fly-ing back to the west to wait until the Tammany administratioa comes back into power. McClusky's first action was to re-establish the "dead lino," which Inspector Byrnes instituted well down town, but to move it as far north as Forty-second street, where the Tenderloin precinct pre-cinct ends. He sent out a squad of his men and told them to clean up Broadway. Nobody was spared, the plain pickpockets find'ng themselves in company with the neat confidence men and the hotel thieves in tho round-up on the various nights after the order was put into effect. Now there are some saloon keepers on Broadway iu mourning, for half their trade has gone with the departure ot the gentry who have been living by their wits and thriving tor the last five years along the "alley." After that McOlusky set out to demonstrate that Inspector Biooks had been lax in dealing with the gamblers. He had sent his men into half a dozen big houses already and they have brought about raids that have been successful in every Instance. In-stance. And this, by the way, is no easy task. Under the laws passed by the hayseed legislature legisla-ture there are many social clubs in the city whicu are merely gambling dens and whose crowds transiorm themselves into citizens' meetings I whenever the police appear. Besides it is necessary neces-sary to get warrants in every case ror a raid and there are always plenty of friends at court to tell the gamblers when trouble is coming. Furthermore, Further-more, the gambling houses of New York are fortified, for-tified, with doors of oak and steel and steel bars at the windows that have to be broken with axes and sledge hammers and even with the burglar's good weapon, the "jimmy." In a raid a day or two ago some of the detectives detec-tives made a lescent upon a gambling house and after arresting two lookouts got lost. They rushed into an ante-room and expected to And their men, who were being guarded by detectives who had obtained an entrance to the place in disguise. There were thjee doors to the room, all of them locked. One was smashed and the detectives tound themselves in another room with three locked doors. They smashed through into another, anoth-er, with three doors again, then cut through a partition and tound three more doors. Then as the only way out they went to the 'floor above and cut a hole through the ceiling and dropped in upon the gamblers who were being held at bay 9 at pistols' point. I The fact that even such difficulties will not stop McClusky nas given the gamblers a thorough lright and not many of them are attempting to jj keep their places open. As to the big ones Rich- 1 ard Canfleld, the prince of them, in whose house j under the old conditions one could place a larger I bet than he could at Monte Carlo, is still abroad, j avoiding the indictment which Diptrlct Attorney I Jerome has obtained against him. Frank Ferrell I has closed a house ho furnished at great expense I near the Waldorf and has decided to move further up-town in the vicinity of Canfield's. He had ( hardly completed the furnishing of his place, how- ever, with extra strong fortification, before the j public was made aware of his Intentions. E. J. Y. .. i |
