Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, June 8, 1902, Page 30

London’s Big Iron Tunnel and Its Electric Road MARBLE ARCH STATION ON CE> (Copyright, 1902, by Frank G. Carp nicr) ONDON May Hl} (Sp pondence of The teen) Come clal Corre with me and take a ride through the Tuppenny Tube. Do you know what it is? It i an im mens iron tunnel, so big that two men could stand one on th houl der of the other upright within it nd the hair of the upper man would just kraze the roof It is six miles in length and it runs under the busiest part of thi busiest city of the world It lic from sixty to one hundred feet below the surface of the streets and there is an electrie rail road within it which carries you rapidly from station to station, where you can climb up or climb down It is made of castiron pipes bolted together in segment It Is laid in cement and it cost something Iike $3,000,000 a mile. I want you to see it because it is a big part of this American invasion I have come here to describe The most of its machinery was made in New York and the locomotives were constructed by the Gen- eral Electric company of the United States The Tuppenny Tube carried more than 000,000 passengers last year and its re- ceipts during twelve months were more than $1,500,000 1ts traffie is steadily in creasing and it promises soon to become one of the most profitable railroads of London. ition in London, Defore we go into the tube T would like to say a word about the possibilities of in- vestments in London locomotion Th population here is enormous, but the fa cllities for carrying it are the poorest of those of any capital of Europe. The strects are narrow and the most of them are ac cessible only by 'buses or cabs. There are underground roads run by steam, and tram ways hauled by horse power, but as yet the electrical undertakings are at thoir be ginning 1 have before me the number of pa n gers who p last year. This is counting a passenger to cach fare. The number | more than 1,000,000,000. Of these 351,000,000 rode on id fares on cars, cabs and 'buses the railways, 331,000,000 on tramwazs and 356,000,000 on omnibuses Think of that! More than four times as many omnibus rides were taken in London as there are men, women and children in the United States, and every one of those rides was on a 'bus The re more than 3,000 omnibuses in the greater London and more than 300000 horses are used to haul them back and forth through the streets. On than 200,000,000 pas Iragged by two horses omnibus company carried mor senger, last year. It used 3,000 horses and its fares averaged about 3 cents a ride About one-third of all the people who rode in London last year rode in omni buses, while two-thirds of them were pulled by horses. And this is in the big gest city of the world! Fort in Electricity, 1s it any wonder that the Yankees are grasping at these enormous possibilities with itching palms? 1 know a baker's dozen of New York millionaires who are schem ing to carry the London to and from his husiness more rapidly at a good round profit to themselves. You have all heard of Charles Tyson Yerkes. He made a few millions in Chicago, the most rapid city of the world, in carting passengers to and fro He has come to London and expects to make tens of millions in carrying these slowest people in the same way He has it s said, the control of the Metropolitan underground steam roads and will change their power to electricity. Pierpont Mor gan is in another big scheme and the chlef eystems seem destined to be owned by Americans London is so big now that the possibili ties of electrical traction within it cannot be estimated. With fast trains, twice as many will ride as under the present system and rapid transit will make ti » eity grow beyond conception. It has 6,000,000 people now and it is estimated that it will have 12,000,000 within thirty years The new beautifully constructed of Schenectady, jewel in steel. Tuppenny Learning to Hustle, g in and out, hustling Americans » custom to stop and take did before 500 people waited with me while they took up the » tickets are dropped into the boxes the conductor everything windows and over In the tube passengers » closes as soon as we i platform and the car has started before we everything We might enter Americans, great spiral ¢ us to the Bank of New York. The cars are almost a fa to walk down the are upholstered porcelain bricks » station and shot s 2 can see noth- within electric 8 the darkness of the millionaire's glass as big of the great and coming out city overhead back to Shepherd’s Bush, ¢ Bank to study s of Eleeiric At Shepherd’s Bush we the enormous of the subter- » again to the to operate itself cest brightness accentuates the generators into the station the General Americans o do with its management. throughout Americnn Invasion, The tunnel is six and a quarter miles long of the way trademark had to be paid » infernal Yan- American-built Keep your eye sation of goneness & idvertisements, Bank static train along i » speed down her scrambling locomotive. undertaking none to compare Lave been through. There are s veral which come out at the Bank station. Suppose w enter the tube of the tunnel of the City and Waterloo railroad. We go down through a long pipe walled with porcelain tiles as fine as a dinner plate There is a board chute running up and down floored with cement. This is filled with people rushing back and forth from and to th: cars and street. Their steps have a curicus echo and I stop at the entrance to listen he incline is easy and I pick up my camera and run with the crowd down through the tiled hy'e The wind from the ventilating fans com-s fresh against my face as I trot on with a long-limbed, rcsy-cheeked Englsh 'l sprinting beside me I look at her out of the tail of my eye as I run, wondering il she is a barmaid, a dressmaker or a lady of quality. At any rate, she is a good run- ner and we reach the hottom together. Here we find a different kind of car and engine, The cars are more like barrels with seats inside them than anything else, and each car seems to carry its own motor The trains go at great speed, but they do not compare in beauty and comfort with those of the Tuppenny Tube made by the Yankces. Nevertheless they carry consid- erably more thaa 100,000 passenge day and their receipts approximate $150,000 a month., The fare one way is 4 cents, or the round trip for 6 cents The electric underground railways of London will be rapidly extended There are schemes for something like 100 miles of such roads now before Parliament, and the .ay will soon come when every part of this vast metropolis will be honeycombed with railroads. One of the biggest schemes of underground extension is backed by Pier- pont Morgan, connected with large British interests, and others, as I have said, are being pushed by Yerkes. Mr. Yerkes has his concessions, and the work of converting the Metropolitan Undergrcund from steam to electricity is one of short time and much money. Eight new tube lines have already been authorized by Parliament, and in the suburbs there are several electric tramway above ground. I have ridden on a number of these, The cars are Jdouble-deckers, with seats on the roof. They are well patron- ized The most of them belcng to the London County Council, and I understand that they pay dividends, notwithstanding they run working men’s trains at certain hours of the day at one-half and in some cases at one-fourth of the regular rates Tramways Waorked by the City, The tendency here seems to be in the direction of the city owning as many of the railroads as possible About three- fourths of the tramway traffic is now in the hands of the London County Counecil, which is a term comprehending the couneil which manages the greater London It carried on its southern tramways last year more than 18,000,000 passengers, and on its northern tramways, which were leased from the Northern Metropolitan railrc 158,000,000, ad, about Other tramways ar being rapidly ac- quired and it is safe to prophesy that within a few years all of the roads above ground will become the property of the county couneil Many of these roads are now worked by horses, but in the future thoey will be run by electricity The first of the roads bought by th ¢oun- cil was along about 1883. The Metropolitan lease was made in 1867 and by 1901 that lease had cost the council over $4.000,000. The council pays the original holders a fixed rent of over $200,000 a year and also 5 per cent on the purch which it owns in price of the property, mple, and 6 per cent on the value of its po's and cther build- ings It also pays 12'% per cent of the in- th year 1885, It pays other fixed charges hat the original owners have a very fair bargair At the same time the receipts are larg They amounted to a st $400,- and showed a profit balance of Or N ro Lor A profit last year to the city was ir neigh- borhood of $150,000, and this notwithstand- BUILT ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE, USED ON LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY ing that the passcnger Were irricd at an average f of le 2 cents per ride On the omnibuse of the pa sengers were carried at nt fares and {3 per cent at 2 cents per The ccunty council is steadi'y buying rail- r.ads and it has a number under constru n. I may he in the future How He Lost a l’cnslun ‘4\.J'U!\I“‘Mll | don’t think I'll get it.’ Why not 2" Well, you see, 1 cavght a bad cold ‘i the civil war.’ j wpplicd SOf course *An’ it's been a-workin® on me ever sence."” “Naturally. ‘An’ tother day it broke out in a gai lopin' consumpticn.” “Why, you don't lcok like a “l know {t; an’ that's jos t where the trouble comes in. The very minute the con sumption hit me, an' I put in my applica- tion to the government, the old lady fell to prayin' fer me, an' ‘bout a quarter to 10 o'clock last night—or mebbe it wuz twenty minutes to 10—her prayers wuz answered an' 1 commenced to feel better, until now I'm 'feared I'm plum well. Takin' ine at my looks no government in the world is a-goin to pension me 1 don’t want to muzzle th cld lady, but it looks like I'll have to I'he Dawn of Love ew York Sun '"Twas a brave act and it touched her deeply. To her he was a her more than ever But such leceds were of daily orcurren with him, and save *h ‘1e breath cuame from his 1e:p, menly chest a litile foster ind except for a trifling glow the exertion had brougit 1o his well-tanned check, he was as if nothing vnusual had raken place They walkd on in silence for a few wéins t Suddenly, ruable to :oniaia her ad miration lor she faced him square] Y blurted out: Gee, Jim, i* wouldn't cu: n ¢ wil you if all 'ell froze uvar! ‘Not if I had you ter skate wid, Li~ And each knew that the other Some Reasons Why You Should Insist on Having EUHEKI HARNESS OIL Unequaled by any other, Renders hard leather soft. 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