This Harper’s Weekly cartoon depicts the persistent problem of
overcrowding on New York City’s public streetcars. The artist
envisions passengers hanging from straps on the side of the car, as more
people jump aboard the already packed railroad car.
In 1831, a horse-drawn vehicle called an omnibus was introduced into
use in New York City as a means of public transportation. The next year,
the New York and Harlem Railroad Company inaugurated the street railway,
a horse-drawn railroad car (as seen in this cartoon). The first trip,
from Prince Street to 14th Street, transported 30 passengers
at a rate of seven to 12 miles-per-hour. The use of railroad tracks made
the ride smoother, more stable, closer to the ground, and less of a
burden on the horses. Initially, the omnibus was more economically
feasible, but the construction and use of street railroads began
expanding rapidly in the 1850s, so that by 1858 the five major street
railways in New York City carried almost 35 million passengers per year.
When this cartoon appeared, Henry Bergh, President of the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was urging the New York
legislature to enact a bill he had drafted to limit the number of
passengers traveling at one time on streetcars and omnibuses. A Harper’s
Weekly editorial, entitled "Cruelty to Bipeds," endorses
Bergh’s bill: "Whether it is his chief intention to relieve the
cruelty to the animals inside or outside of those carriages is not
stated, but the passage of his humane bill will be of the greatest
service to both. Passengers are now packed into cars like fish in
barrels." It was not uncommon for railroad cars, which were built
to accommodate 32 riders, to carry 60 or more during rush hour, making a
trip from Third Avenue to Wall Street last 90 minutes. The editor
rejects the companies’ excuses, and calls for the legislature to
"stand between the people and these vast monopolies or we shall be
oppressed without remedy."
Another of the newspaper’s columnists describes the brutal contest
for space on the street railroad cars. He explains that at the close of
the business day, people rush for all the cars, filling the seats before
the uptown trip begins; yet, each car continues to squeeze in passengers
at every stop. "Where your lot is cast there must you remain fixed
and immovable! … The human freight … are matted together …
the monotony of misery is only varied by the sudden lurch of humanity
forward and backward, and the agonizing extrication of some unfortunate
from the interwoven mass." As a warning of the dangers, he reports
the recent collapse of a car floor which held about 50 or 60 riders.
The journal also published a poem on the problem:
STREET-CAR SALAD.
Never full! pack ‘em in!
Move up, fat man, squeeze in, thin.
Trunks, Valises, Boxes, Bundles,
Fill up gaps as on she tumbles.
Market baskets without number,
Owners easy—nod in slumber.
Thirty seated, forty standing,
A dozen more on either landing.
Old man lifts the signal finger,
Car slacks up—but not a linger—
He’s jerked aboard by sleeve or shoulder,
Shoved inside to sweat and moulder.
Toes are trod on, hats are smashed,
Dresses soiled—hoop-skirts crashed.
Thieves are busy, bent on plunder,
Still we rattle on like thunder.
Packed together, unwashed bodies,
Bathed in fumes of whisky toddies;
Tobacco, garlic, cheese, and beer
Perfume the heated atmosphere.
Old boots, pipes, leather and tan,
And if in luck, a "Soap-Fat man."
Aren’t this jolly? What a blessing!
A Street-Car Salad, with such a dressing.
But the separate efforts of Harper’s Weekly and Henry Bergh
were unsuccessful. Four years later, in 1871, the newspaper published an
illustrated story of Bergh’s attempt to convince a streetcar driver
not to overload his car. When the driver refused to heed the plea, Bergh
blocked his path, causing a massive traffic jam. The company agreed to
replace the two horses with four-horse teams.
For more information on New York’s streetcars, see the archive for
the Harper’s Weekly cartoon of January 22, 1887, " Shake
Sharp Next!"
