The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 50, October 21, 1897

One morning the papers appeared, telling in indignant words the story of how the aldermen of the city of New York were about to give away the right to build a railroad on the Kingsbridge Road.

Now the people who know most about city government think that the companies who desire the franchise which gives them the right to lay tracks and run cars through certain streets, should be made to pay a yearly sum to the city for the privilege.

There has been a good deal of trouble over this Kingsbridge Road franchise. Two companies have been anxious to secure it, but neither has offered to pay its real value for it.

The granting of the franchise is done by the vote of the Board of Aldermen, who pass the resolution much in the same way that Congress passes a bill, and send their resolution to the Mayor for his signature, in the same manner that bills are sent to the President.

In the matter of the Kingsbridge Road franchise neither of the companies made much headway.

Both companies were extremely anxious to get possession of the line, but the aldermen were equally divided in their favor.

At last a rumor got abroad that in their desire to get a decision the companies were trying to influence the aldermen.

A few days after this report was spread abroad, people were startled to learn that the aldermen had reached a decision, and that the franchise was to be given to the Third Avenue road, for a sum that was nothing like its real value.

There was a great outcry at once.

The memory of the "Broadway Steal" in 1886 was too fresh in people's minds for them to be willing that it should be repeated.

The newspapers started the cry, the law was invoked, and the aldermen were forbidden to pass the franchise for the Kingsbridge Road until the matter had been looked into.

The aldermen were a good deal startled when these papers were served on them. They remembered the Broadway trouble, and how three of a former board of aldermen had been sent to prison, six had had to leave the country, and four had only saved themselves from punishment by telling the story of their crimes, and helping the authorities to punish their fellow-sinners.

The recollection of this worried the aldermen, but they determined to meet the accusations against them, and asked their lawyer, Mr. Scott, to go to court, and ask the judge to allow them to grant the franchise.

Mr. Scott, however, refused. He told them that in his opinion they had not the slightest right to pass that franchise, and he would not go into court and plead for a thing which he knew to be wrong.

The aldermen, much disturbed at this, decided to let the matter of the franchise alone, and though there is some talk of looking more closely into the matter, and finding if any bribery has been attempted by the railroads, the chances are that now the danger is past the matter will be allowed to rest.

    G.H.Rosenfeld.

BOOK REVIEWS

Wild Neighbors, Out-Door Studies in the United States, by Ernest Ingersoll, is a most interesting addition to the new books of the year. It treats in a charming way of some of the better-known animals of this country, and will be especially appreciated by those of our boys who love out-door sport. It will prove instructive, as well. (The publishers are Macmillan & Co., New York, and the price, $1.50.)

Part of the author's description of the panther reminds your editor of an interesting experience he had in the Adirondacks. Ingersoll says that "'the blood-curdling screams' of the puma have furnished forth many a fine tale for the camp-fire, but evidence of this screaming which will bear sober cross-examination is scant." In the fall of 1875 we were camping in a little clearing on the bank of the Racquette River; one of our guides, an impulsive Frenchman, started out alone one night, without waking us, and succeeded in shooting a deer. Down the river he came, shouting and making a terrible racket to express his delight; the whole party was awake and out of the tent by the time he reached the landing. Lifting the deer out of the boat, we hung it up on a pole between two trees, and then, brightening up the fire, sat around telling stories until old Father Nod began to remind us that it was 3 a.m., and not breakfast-time. Just then there came the most blood-curdling scream I have ever heard, and it seemed so near us that we all jumped to our feet and made a dash for the guns. Our old guide reassured us by saying that it was only a "painter," and he was "across the river." In the morning we went over early, and there, sure enough, were his tracks in the sand, looking very much like the prints of the palm of a boy's hand, with a row of little holes on one side where the claws stuck in. I am sure that if the author of "Wild Neighbors" had been with our party he would not have been so sceptical about a panther's ability to scream. We will forgive him because he tells so many good stories in this interesting book of his.

"Old Mother Earth," by Josephine Simpson and "The Story of Washington," by Jessie R. Smith.

The first-named book is without doubt one of the very best in its line. It adopts a simple, direct, natural way of unfolding the subject, and cannot fail to interest the children in all they see around them.

The "Story of Washington" is a little gem. The children would be delighted to read it for themselves, and the illustrations are such that children understand. It is beautifully bound for such a cheap little book, and surely ought to find favor wherever it is carefully examined.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

TYPEWRITER FOR BOOKS.—We have for years had typewriters that would write on loose pages of paper, but the making of a perfect machine that could write in bound volumes has not been successfully accomplished until the present time.

A typewriting machine can write much more quickly than any penman—and the work it does has the advantage of being easy to read, whereas very few people write a clear and legible hand.

In office work much of the writing to be done is making entries in books and copying into ledgers.

All this has had to be done by hand, and it has of course taken a much longer time to do.

By means of this new invention books can be kept and entries copied with the same neatness and speed of an ordinary typewriter.

The great difficulty in making a machine to do this work properly was that it was not possible to have the paper move back and forth as it does in typewriting machines generally. For bound books the paper must remain still, and the type moves over the page in the same manner that the pen does.

The new book typewriter has mastered this difficulty. The page is held firmly in a kind of frame, and the type moves with each letter or word that it writes.

In making entries in books, it is highly necessary to be sure that the writing is correct—and so this machine has a simple little device which lifts the type up and shows the writing underneath.

notes

1

Pronounced voulee.