RELATxVE RIGHTS OF R. R. COMPANIES AND THE PUBLIC. 247 



and rumbling noises caused by huge vehicles. The ponderous double-decked 

 omnibuses, with their three stalwart white horses at the pole, go over this new 

 pavement, almost as silently as a swallow skims the air. I am writing this epistle 

 in my ofifice, which is separated from the Boulevard des Capucines, one of the 

 most crowded streets in the world, only by the width of a courtyard with wide 

 entrances, yet no noise of vehicles offends my ears. There is no thunder of 

 Broadway here. The only noise which troubles me just now is made by an ener- 

 getic French gentleman with rosy complexion, who, seated at a table in a room 

 on the opposite side of the inner court, is crying out: '■'■ Deux mille deux fois I 

 Deux mille irois fois ! '" and so farther, as the Germans say. As he is within the 

 precincts of a club, I am doubtless right in imagining that his enthusiasm is not 

 entirely disconnected with cards. But that is merely a passing suspicion. My 

 point is that, thanks to the sediles, we have reached a pass at which men make 

 more noise than vehicles in Paris. How precious would the wooden pavement 

 be on lower Broadway and on the crowded streets by the water side in New 

 York. I^uppose there are more private carriages in this city than any other 

 capital in the world, and it seems to me that they scurry home at all hours of the 

 night. One slumbers with no danger of being disturbed by them. The wooden 

 pavement presents so many advantages over stone and asphalt that it is likely to 

 come into general use throughout Europe. The three years' study of the French 

 engineers in London are accepted by engineers of other continental cities as con- 

 clusive. The present pavement is an improvement, or rather the result of a long 

 series of improvements, on the American system, which was introduced into Lon- 

 don in 1872. The annuity system of payment adopted here presents advantages 

 peculiarly adaptable to American cities, enabling the abutter to calculate a long 

 time in advance what his charges are likely to be, and keeping him out of the 

 hands of "rings" and other detrimental combinations permitted where city poli- 

 tics are corrupt. Every growing city has much to gain by extending its paving 

 contracts over eighteen or twenty-one years, instead of paving occasional large 

 assessments for the mistakes or caprices of would-be improvers. Experiments 

 are henceforth useless; any municipaUty following the Paris model will find itself 

 completely satisfied. — Cor. N. V. Evening Post. 



RELATIVE RIGHTS OF RAILROAD COMPANIES AND THE 



PUBLIC.i 



j^ There have been two recent decisions of our Supreme Court in cases not 

 only affecting very important local interests but also involving questions the solu- 

 tion of which vitally concerns the public welfare. These decisions are in settle- 

 ment of the controversies in regard to transportation facilities at the Savannah 

 depot and the dismantling of the narrow-gauge railroad between Kansas City and 

 Independence. One question involved directly in one of these cases, and re- 



1 From the Ninth Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Missouri. 



