Life — December 17, 1903 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PRESIDENT RECEIVED A DELEGATION OF UI¥ OLD WESTERN FRIENDS YESTERDAY RED Room, Shall Women Ride in Street Cars? T has been suggested that the - difticnit rapid transit problem in New York would be considera- bly simplified if women were pro- hibited from riding in the street cars. In support of this idea it is averred that many women need more outdoor exercise than they getat present, and would profit ap- preciably by walking more than they do. It is further asserted that they take up more room per fare nmen do, that they are defi- cient in agility, and cannot jamp on and off the cars as quickly as men can, that they do not ‘move up forward”? as they should, but tend to crowd about the doors of a car when it is falland make it needlessly hard to get in and out. Complaint is also made that they are more prone than men to drop coins on the floor, and more apt, when traveling in couples, to di pute tediously as to who shall pay. ‘The feeling of the complainants is that the women in the street cars don’t have their wits about them as they should, and that their de- fects of conduct impair the com- fort of the men, and hinder them from getting somewhero else in the least possible time. The com- plainants feel sure that this simple expedient of constraining women to walk would immediately bring greater relief to the patrons of our rapid transit system than will be brought by the tunnel, or any other remedy in sight or in mind. Maybe so, but still we cannot support this suggestion. In the first place, only a small propor- tion of the women patrons of the Interborough Railway Company, 631 and especially of the elevated roads, ride in the rush hours. The most crowded trains are crowded chiefly by men going downtown in the morning and back at night, and vast quantities of women are carried in the shopping hours when their presence in the cars is inconvenient mainly to themselves and one another. Moreover, - though many women are not perfect street car passengers, there are some highly ob- jectionable faults from which they are free. They don't bring lighted cigars into cars, and they don’t mass themselves on the rear platforms (with or without cigars), and make ingress or egress a disgusting strnggle. The worst faults in street car manners are faults of men. Moreover, though som women need more exercise, very 1 women need the discipline of street locomotion. ‘To ride on street cars in New York stimulates their command of their own wits, and trains them incessantly in decision, promptness and presence of mind. Besides that, with all their faults they are interesting company—more — interesting than the frieze of advertisements, and also, asa rule, more decorative. We do not favor their exclusion from the public convey ances. A. D. 3000 GMALL BOY: Mother, is it trae that ‘we are descended from people who walked ? Burglar Beetle: WHY DON'T YER TURN ON DE IRIN SEE? Firefly (hoaredly}: 1 Got Me FEET WET, 4x‘ Now LIGHT's GOIN’ OUT. & ‘ comicbooks.com