We congratulate our fellow citizens on the probability which exists that during the coming summer residents in the outer wards will not been entirely shut off from the privilege of communication with the rest of the world. The bold and decided stand taken by Mayor Powell in his inaugural message,1 has not been without its effect in promoting a healthy tone of feeling on this subject among those with whom the decision of the matter rests, and we have reliable ground for believing that a majority of our present Common Council will not be disposed much longer to withhold from their fellow citizens that which they so clearly need, a power of Sunday locomotion.
No obstacle to the running of the cars on Sundays may be expected from the Company, whose interests in this matter are identical with those of the public; and the small but active class of objectors who have hitherto contrived to prevent the cars from being run may well suppress their complaints in regard to the immorality which they anticipate will result from the measure, for the Mayor, (than whom no man bears a more consistent standing in the Christian church) does not advise the step without giving the results of his own observation as to the character of the parties who avail themselves of the New York cars on the Sabbath.
The objection urged by the Star is equally untenable—that New York rowdies would be attracted here if the cars were run. We have before explained to our venerable contemporary that the way to prevent this would be to stop the ferries, not the cars. Running the boats may perchance furnish New York rowdies with the means of coming here; but running the cars can tend only to convenience our own population.
We confidently anticipate, therefore, that ere long a resolution will be offered in the Common Council and adopted, carrying out the view which his Honor the Mayor, in common with nineteen-twentieths of the public of our city, entertain as to the necessity and expediency of directing the City Railroad Company to place on their several routes on Sundays a sufficient number of cars to accommodate all wishing on that day to travel from one part of the city to another.
1. Samuel S. Powell (1815–1879) served as mayor of Brooklyn from 1857 to 1861, and then again from 1872 to 1873. In 1863, he was nominated to become water commissioner by a previous mayor of Brooklyn, Colonel Alfred M. Wood, but was denied confirmation by the Board of Aldermen. Thomas Jefferson Whitman mentioned Powell's nomination in a December 1863 letter to Walt. [back]