Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 February 1917 — Page 15

THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1917.

HAWTHORNE YARDS. WITH FIFTY-FIVE MILES OF TRACK, AND A NEW DIVISION AMONG THE PENNSYLVANIA COMPANY’S PROJECTS AFFECTING INDIANAPOL

New Link Connecting Vandalia Line Between Indianapolis and Frankfort, Giving Pennsylvania Company Direct Route Over Its Own Tracks Into Chicago, Will Be Completed During the Present Year—Right-of-Way Covers Forty-one Miles and Will Make a Fast Schedule Possible Between Chicago and Indianapolis—All Important Highways Crossed Above Grade and Arches Top the Intersecting Railroads — Concrete Arches of Attractive Design Span the Highways—Many Miles of Trestle Built in the Construction of Big Fills. tBy William Henchcll] IMPROVEMENTS now under wav I T I fri the Indianapolis zone of tlio I | I Pennsylvania railroad represent I A I ,m P ort * nt changes in the riilroad !■ J map of Indiana and, when completed, will have cost a fortune of millions. One project is the building of a great yard east of the Belt railroad In Irvington, the other the construction of a connecting link between the St. Louis division of the Vandalia railroad and the Michigan dlvlslop of the same road. Ben Davis, six miles west of Indianapolis, Is the southern terminal of the new line. Its northerti end Is at Frankfort. The construction work on the Pennsylvania’s ,jiew projects has been going forward sven in the face of unfavorable weather conditions, an<i unless unforeseen difficulties arise the new Indianapolis and Frankfort division will be opened to traffic before July 1. Work on the forty-one miles of this new line has been .under way since last summer. Its purpose Is to give the Pennsylvania railroad a direct route between Indianapolis and Chicago. For many years the Pennsylvania has been running over the tracks of the Lake Erie & Western railroad between this city and Kokomo, where Junction was had with the Cincin-nati-Chicago division. Track* Above Highway Grades. The new line, when the service is started, will shorten the Pennsylvania’s running time between this city and Chicago. For forty-one miles tlje passenger trains can travel at top speed, as the tracks, for almost the entire distance, are above highway grades. Trains leaving Indianapolis will run west from the union station to Ben Davis tower. There they will swing to the north and, passing through Lebanon, strike the Michigan division of the Vandalia railroad In Frankfort. The Indlanapolls-Chlcago trains then will run over the Vandalia line to Logansport, where Junction will be had with the Chlcago-Clnclnnatl division of the Pennsylvania railroad. The Vandalia railroad is part of the Pennsylvania sys-

tem.

The new division, when completed, will be one of the most perfect pieces of track In the middle west- The rails are of the 100-pound type, and, although doubletracking is not to be done until the price of steel drops a few points, every provision has been made for two tracks. All bridges, overheads and trestles have been constructed for a double line of rails and the fills will be wide enough to meet the same demand. Grade Crossings Eliminated. Crossings at grade have been eliminated wherever possible. The tracks through Lebanon pass above all streets, and all important highways between Indianapolis and Frankfort have been topped with arches. Spans also have been erected over railroads crossed by the new line. The St. Louis and Peoria divisions of the Big Four and the C., I. & W. tracks are crossed overhead. Electric railroads also are crossed by arches. One Interesting feature of the new division is that the railroad company bought a farm and turned it upside down in order to get earth to make the big fills. The farm belonged to Frank MoCaslln, near Stop 4 on the Danville trac-

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tlon line. A high hill was Included in the purchase of the seventy-seven acres, and this has been almost entirely removed by the big steam shovels. The hill has been hauled for miles by the construction trains, and now la scattered over Marion and Boone counties. More than 3,000.000 yards of earth have been handled in the building of the big fills along the line. The fills average thirty feet in bight, and in many places are 100 feet wide at the

base.

New Way of Constructing Fills. Old construction Ideas were cast aside In the building of the new Pennsylvania division. Years ago the railroads constructed fills and tracks ahead of the train, binder the new system a trestlework Is erected along the right-of-way and the earth is hauled over It and dumped from the cars. The Pennsylvania company built sixteen miles of trestlework to make Its grade on the new division. This required a vast amount of scrub timber, a material obtained In the south. The construction trains ran over this elevation and dumped the earth around It, completely obscuring the trestlework. The trains dumped a car a minute. It required 70,000 yards of concrete to build the arches and bridges on the In-dlanapolls-Frankfort line. Steel was used In building the arches over the railroads crossed by the new division. These arches

averaged 160 feet in length. The constructing company also depressed the other railroads. The tracks of the C., I. & W. road were lowered five feet, the Danville traction line was dropped two feet and the Central Indiana two and one-half feet. On the first of the present month 51 per cent, of the w-ork on the new line was completed and, unless the weather takes a heavy hand, trains will be running over the road by July 1. Large forces of men are at work laying the steel and the construction trains are completing the fills at top speed. With this shortened line the Pennsylvania expects to make competing lines “step some” to beat them to the Indianapolis-Chicago business. Will Ease Traffic Conditions. The new line will serve to ease traffic conditions in the northern part of Indianapolis, as the Pennsylvania sends much heavy traffic over the Lake Erie & Western tracks. The Monon also runs through the same district. Track elevation already has been accomplished on the Vandalia’s tracks west of the city and the Pennsylvania’s Chicago business will go that way. Another Pennsylvania railroad project that is of vital importance In the upbuilding of-a greater industrial Indianapolis in the new yards southeast of the city. Where, only a summer ago, small streams rippled through woods and pas-

TWIN A15CHES IN HAWTHORNE YARDS

tures and fields of corn, one of the model Cincinnati

railroad yards of the country is now street, being constructed. The district acquired by the Pennsylvania company runs from the Belt railroad on the w’est to Arlington avenue on the east. The northern boundry is Lexington avenue and the southern boundry is the Indianapolis &

traction line In Prospect time not far in the future, to build a big

roundhouse in the new r district. Double

The company now is at work construct- tracks also will be laid to connect the ing fifty-five miles of switches, practlc- new yards with the Indianapolis division, ally all of which will be connected with two and a half miles east of Irvington, a giant “hump” over which the cars will This trackage will serve to halt all be switched by the gravity system. The Pennsylvania freight trains at the HawPennsylvania management plans at some thorn© yards, as the 'taew traffic district

TEKTH ‘STT^EET A’RC-H WAV FOl^ IMT^\ANAT^Ol-l 3 A NX} FT^.ANKFO'RT DIVI3IOM

has been named, and will put an end to the operation of freight trains through Irvington and the territory between Irvington and the company’s yards at State street. In building’ the new yards the Pennsylvania company had in mind the future development of Indianapolis, for every railroad man sees in this city a great Industrial center that must he recognized So confident Is the Pennsylvania of this development that it already has spent a fortune in building freighthouses to care for the future. The new yards only emphasize the company’s faith in this city's industrial future. Persons familiar with the district southeast of the city would not recognize it now. Near the Junction of the ConnersvlUe and Greehsburg divisions of the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Company a home only recently built has been taken over by the Pennsylvania officials as an office for the engineers In charge of construction* work. In this house are kept all the blueprints from wAich is to evolve a big railroad terminal. Looking, to the north across the new Hawthorne yards otie sees scrapers, steam shovels, trench diggers and other mechanical devices for rapid construction work. Small engines and long trains of dump cars hurry back and forth with loads of earth for the big fill that will make the

Vast Area Southeast of Indiani polls Taken Over by the PennJ sylvanla Line for the Cor struction of Great Yards—Bii Fills and an Extension Drain! age System Necessary in tf Construction of Yards Streets Spanned by ConcretJ Arches Make Growth of thl City Toward the Southeasl Possible—Company Plans tl JBuild Large Roundhouse al Hawthorne, and It Is Probablj That Shops Will Be Erectei There—Six Tracks Now U Service—“Hump” System ol Gravity Switching to Ba Om of the Features of the Nevi Terminal.

“Y” connecting with the Belt rnllro;\<! This “Y” 1® on® of the big construetlol jobs in Hawthorne yards as the V it high above grade and passes over BouthJ eastern.avenue, thus eliminating all cro Ing dangers. It Is taking a vast am6u|j| of earth to make the fills and a lai number of men are employed on the wori Six Tracks Now In Use. The building of Hawthorne yards hegai last May and has progressed enough m admit of the use of six of the trad This has served to case the jam in Pennsylvania’s downtown sards, end mkny of the freight trains arrive and del part from the new terminal. The ' hurrp’l has its crest at Emerson avenue, ami U of sufficient bight to drop cars to the end4 of the longest switches. It will rent approximately 800,000 cubic yards of grad ing to complete the “hump” and the fill^ In Hawthorne yards. Overhead budges have been n al henst.," ■ •'I Emerson and Arlington avenues ‘'hd Hronk viHi* pike a Iso u i'l 1 overhead construction. Thus all’ impopj tant highways will be kept open and th^ yards will in no way interfere with thl growth of the city toward the southeast. Another interesting feature of the Ilaw-j thorne yards is jts drainage system. Ther^ was considerable marshy ground In th€ area acquired by the Pennsylvania company, Including the beds of several small streams. Pleasant run is the iargestl stream that traverses the new rlght-of-T way. Concrete arches span Pleasant nr and the smaller streams have been us«d| as a drainage system outlet, thus making tin- Hawthorne yards practically bsyoiwi the range of floods. Sewers for dr.urmga have been constructed across the entlr*| area. Big Shops May Be Built. The tracks of the Cincinnati, Indiana-! polls & Western railroad cross tho He's Hawthorne yards above grade. Tin tracks of the Indi«napo!l< A Cincinnati Traction Company parallel the new yards,! but do not interfere in any way. ThSI Pennsylvania company has bought orl holds option for enough ground to almoatl double the sard (apacliy. The n r !'ve| miles of tracks now being laid, it is expected, will meet the needs of the corn*! pany for several years. H is probable that as the Hawthorne yard development proceeds the Pennsylvahia. company will j build big shops In the same territory, as there is no surplus room In the shop# at the head of Jefferson avenue. It is interesting to note that both th# Pennsylvania anti the Big Four railroads have selected the same general district for the future development of their business.- The Big Four, several years ago, l.uilt a great shop system at Beech Grove. There locomotives and cars are built and overhauled, the shops employing an army of men to do the work. Big yards also have been constructed at Beech Grov# and a thriving town has grown out of the enterprise. It is expected by real estate men that Hawthorne also will become surrounded by a residence and business district similar to tiiat in Beech Grov*. Another busy railroad center in the same | district Is the Norwood yards of the Big Four, south of Prospect street. The ifawthorna yards of the Pennsylvania lines will be completed this summer, and, when al\ the bills ape paid, the company will have expended In excess of $2,000,000 In the new development.

OUR GREAT TASK OF HAPPINESS—BY THE COUNTRY CONTRIBUTOR

heaven—a heaven of hell, fine and sweet distinction

N THE MIDST of so much that la terrible In the world Just now It Is a sort of solemn duty to cultivate happiness. "The mind Is Its own place end can make a hell of

It Is a very today to be

quietly and sincerely living the old-fash-ioned Christian life. A while age, before w* came up against the startling facts of this age of materialism, this would have been accepted as a trite remark and turned off with a shrug of the shoulder, but today some sudden gripping of the heart holds us to thp tremendous meaning of the religious life. Its Infinite relation to the universe, and even when we turn again to the fleshpots of this age of “prosperity' - It is with a conscious sense of palpable uneasiness like loss, or loneliness, or nonfulfillment—w| know not what, because we do not understand. If we live long enough we are surevto discover that all years of life lived without conscious relation to God In our dally doings are wanted years. It Is hardest. Of all for parents of young folk to realise this. The excitement, th* exuberance and Joy of young folk afflicted (If I may use the term) with the mating frenzy, full of the excitement of school and college life, fills the home with tangible "interests" which seem to make the religious life fairly unnecessary. This is a yery transient phase of experience, and often it results In the development of a very materialistic and nonspiritual family of people. The custom of the old folk getting young again with the children is not. In my mind, wholly advisable. It is fun, but it doesn’t help much when trouble comes, as it Is pretty sure to sooner or later. Human nature needs a lot of safeguards) and I believe that children naturally need considerable dignity and restraint on the part of thetr parents. I ara speaking from rather bitter experience, remembering as I do the exuberant happiness I felt when my girls and I Vere "having a good time,” Grouch Place was a hoUae of mirth for many years, and while I would not for the world have had the girls miss having a good time, 1

would do many thlpgs very differently now If I had It to do over again. Not that we were ever ribald In our fun or Irreligious to the point of being blasphemous. But we became very "light'’ in our attitude toward the great reality of life, which Is not as so many people believe, making money, but which Is spiritual development, for the spirit Is the real—never forget that. 4 The worst faculty of human nature which we developed In our good times was selfishness, egregious, unpardonable selfishness. We were having a good time, and w© were content to allow others to shift for themselves; w-e carried this to extremes, and any family that does this is a nonproductive family in the corn-

house. Any child coming home from town some men were in the street about young folks do. But I distinctly remem- ; woman who makes a Joktf of this, failing

school would rather find its mother working in the kitchen or making a dress In tho midst of a mussy sitting room than to encounter the dead calm of a perfect "living room” with no one in It and the best magazines and the paper knife, together with the austere reading lamp, In orderly array on the huge up-to-date li-

brary table.

I confess to being a little bit afraid of efficiency. I suspect it of being dreadfully nonspiritual. And It Is spiritual life and light the people are dying for—don’t forget that. | Don’t forget ihat great moral movements may be nonspirituai. Don’t forget

munity. robbing society of much of its that many rigid church people are more

spiritual life. It is a distinct blow at the brotherhood of man for any family circle to be wholly absorbed In each other with the definite purpose of being self-suffi-cient. Later it 1s sure to react upon the family. It Is like putting all your eggs Into one basket. Better, far better, to cultivate neighbors and friends, to keep abreast of new people and near elements of society than to devofe all time and energy to seeing that the children "have

a good time."

There Is no doubt that the lengths of actual dissipation to which our smart sets in country towns have gone were due to the middle-aged women who refused to ’’settle down.” The regime of "Society/’ which came in about thirty years ago. was a bad, a very bad. thing for the American home Home has a peculiar way of needing some staid and sensible person at the head of It, and^though the women who emancipated themselves at this time made desperate efforts to keep up the standards of housekeeping so that it couldn't be flung up to them that they were slighting their duty. I doubt that the "efficiency” theji brought to bear upon daily life added much to the spiritual quality of the household. A clean house, regular and excellent meals are certainly means of grace, but there is nothing much more

nonspiritual than burglars. Don't forget that love is often choked off by niceness, and that God Is everywhere, and this means in the saloon and the brothel just as surely as in the church or the literary club. Don’t forget that one commandment In God’s eyes Is the same as another. and that when He said "Honor thy father and thy mother.” “Thou shall love thy neighbor," and “Remember the Sabbath day," He meant it Just as strongly as when he said “Thou shalt not kill,” "Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” We have placed the stress upon certain of these, but they did not come first in the decalogue. We have arrogated ourselves upon keeping

2 o’clock. A big car gilded Into the light of a street lamp. In it were five young people belonging to what we call good society. In the front seat were a young boy and girl, in the back seat two young boys and a girl. One of the boys held the girl in his arms, her head on his shoulder and he kissed her repeatedly regardless of spectators. This is almost too Indecent to relate, but it happened and the children were all “leaders’’ in society. There are many poor girls and boys who envy them and bitterly long for the automobiles and the dancing and the excitement that form the greater part of of their lives. Yet all who have courage to think about this calmly must realize that these poor children of "wealthy” parents live in an atmosphei^ totally nonspiritual. Their parents have not taught them the beauty of holiness, or even the colder code of fastidiousness we call "good breeding.**' There is a lure to coarseness In every human being. It Is “the brute nature” putting up Its claim; but right along with it runs the Insistent call of the divine and th© divine Is Instinctive good taste and natural “good breeding/’ I do not say that the girl who through the foolish indulgence of parents who are crazy for her to have a good time has lost her appreciation of womanhood’s crowning gift of modesty, Will not develop Anally into a good woman, but she might have been spared the intense

ber •walking the floor and fairly tearing my hair because my litle girl ran off from a friend’s house, where she was visiting' in the country, with a young man in one of the first automobiles we ever had in the county (such a great temptation!), and went across the river unchaperoned and took dinner at a hotel. Of course, the machine, as machines always did in those days, broke down and the young man had to hire a horse and buggy to get home. It was 11 o’clock when they got in and Nerve Cheesewright was working with me, putting crushed ice on my head to ward off temporary Insanity. We came across pome old scrap books in the V>me of my old aunt, who died the other day, after eighty years of single life. There were several pictures of Go-

to look at It gravely and seriously, stm ply lacks mental balance. The people who by reason of poverty or of circumstances have been forcibly prevented from indulging “natural^ passions have been the great geniuses of tho world, and the reason why society is so flat today and why so little that Is worth while is being done in literature and art In America is simply because "prosperity” has permitted our people to work off their passions in Indulgence in the frivolous things that “money" enables them to do. The spending of money hinders thought. It makes reading seem like drudgery. It gets our necessary articles ready made. It enables us to follow the line of the

least resistance.

washing on a bright morning and looks up to see another woman about her age driving along in a fine limousine with a bouquet of American Beauty roses In the holder and a poodle dog beside her, the woman who is doing the washing Is quite likely to think that the limousine woman has the great blessings of life. But this may not be the case. The limousine woman may be terribly unhappy. She may have trouble with her husband, she may have lost a child, her social ambitions may have embittered her life (for limousines do not admit people Into the

circle they aspire to!).

Driving in a limousine is not a better antidote for worry than doing a washing. I know, for I have tried both. Don’t

thinks It Is smart to ignore and ridicule the etiquette of tables and of places of entertainment. He is Just a little more egregious than the man whp Is afraid of making a mistake. There is a form of boorishness which men mistake for Inde-pendence-a familiarity with serving people which well-bred serving people look down upon, and with good reason. If you slap a hotel waiter on the ba< k, jok ing h‘m and calling him “George” with the raw sophistication of the American who thinks he has “caught on,” you presume upon the dignity of that waiter. I think one of the greatest mistakes the American farmer has made-and this is saying a great deal—Is his familiarity with the hired man and his habit of lowering his standard of dignity to suit the hired man’s crude notion of equality. Nothing

j imagine that I own a limousine, but L

• h<,,, " , ” V ' 4 ‘ OW "* arri,yed L-n,™, M d popular m«bod ol workln,! ^ “irL «rTJ L»lu- «*"'>»"'« * <l-n,„«r.ry. It l,a, d*„„, W y

My aun/ wap a vary ^ ^ I,— >< ™

tlan, opposed to dancing and card play- , r J ^ , J who said:

Ing. My sister suggested that deep in; Not * h ' at 1 ‘W 0 ®* I do not. It . i f you a blt discouraged and things ain't

her heart she had cherished a longing ’ is healthful and delightful exercise. If 1 for the life of fashionable society or she a ,ot of ^ chappy folk would not'have kept these pictures. I do I who 9it arou: '“ i in what they mistakenly

movin’ right.

Get up and wash your windows so your soul

I know^lhisT wfiT work because I tried 1* one of the chief factors in the exodus

of good families from farm homes.

look up to, we have allowed our sons and daughters to become familiarized with what is common and coarse, and this

If we ever reinstate the spiritual light and life in rural neighborhoods it will

certain commandments and breaking mortification that will consume her like

others, but we have no special evidence

that God has any favorite ones.

As to our great duty of being happy, I seriously doubt that parents and middleaged people gained anything when they yielded to friskiness, or that they do themselves or the children good service when they become lax in their discipline to the point of allowing the boys and girls to have their own way. Youth is

flame when she comes out of her fool’s paradise, if her parents had Just cultivated the spiritual atmosphere in their home and with it a little reserve of simple native independence afid self-respect that would have held them to the creed which is as true now as it ever was and as it always will be, that young people should not be given the means and the opportunity for license like that. I claim that the man

not agree with this. The tacit admission SUI,pose to be ,he 8P iritual atmosphere it y es t e rday. though in view of the fact which most folks make that everybody 001)1(1 S° t0 a dance about twice a that our f urnaC e smokes and will dirty

would take up a frivolous social career i )’ ear 11 would do them physical and moral j them up In twenty-four hours it seemed . . . . | if he had a chance is one I do not make. eo<xl. But the best thing that can pos-j scarce!y worth whlle . It worked thoug*h, j ^°?’ e throu S h P* 0 ^ 6 wbo ^ow how to j The popular notion that bare neck and slb *> r fiaPP« n to an - v ot us is tba t Inexor-j j f e j t a j ot better, and the advantage; 1o|,i therhselvea i'P and mainta.n their ‘no sleeves denotes high society is one I abl ® circumstances make our indulgences t his form of sublimating the passion of <,iKn * ty and their standing as did the pa'do not share. j b *»* Tt is terribly , ^ief has over that of going to a hotel | trlarchal pioneers of Indiana. Do not “But.” my sister declared, “to dress £ r>0<1 for tbe human being to keep his to dance as many city people do, is that i ^ or n ^ orn<;,lt , * mt r ° IJ Fh h inds

like that and go to a ball is the hight of ; nose to the grindstone. But listen to me.

It is stupidity, not goodness, not circumstancee. that keeps people from having happy little sprees of innocent fun sometimes. Believe me, it is lack of Initiative that excludes us from happiness.

bound to find fun. Tou can t keep It who allows a seventeen-year-old boy the

from it, and you help young folks to early sophistication ami the blase attitude toward life, by giving them carte blanche to spend money and run around In little bunches exploiting life and one another.

depressing to a child, or perhaps to a

mail, than a perfectly orderly empty One hot night last summer In a certain

use of a car at a late hour of night, the woman and man who allow their daughter to go out unebaperdned late at night are fools. And I don’t want anybody to say to me, “You did it/’ or, “Your girls did it,” because it is not true. We did enough. All

every girl's ambitionAnd a young girl who was with us agreed to this; but I do

not believe this.

Our passions are not our ambitions. The desire to exhibit our beauty to the men of our world is a passion, not an ambi- J

tion. We are not here to gratify pas- Because there is such an easy and sion, but to sublimate it. It Is not a pity ! glorious way of being happy for all who

when we are forced to do this. It is a are reasonably well situated in life, an I about? It’s no disgrace to be green about and obedience from the yourtgSr genera-

it made me want to slay at home and | caUed ou : grandfathers Bill and Jim or look out the window, while dancing or| our Krandmothers Cory and Goldah. It skating or any of the dissipations would '” ^ at th€ ^ and eh * rpd only have made me want to lea ve-home j th «T sitting room and were present again to find them. j at family worship. But the man and

Do you’know the average American commanded (and received) respect, and man or woman is terribly “green” about | until the heads of the households are the things one oughtn’t to be green; again capable of inspiring this reapec t

blessing, not only to ourselves but to society at large. The noble works of genius are all the works of sublimated passion. Religion is sublimated passion. It is feeling turned into a nobler channel than that of mere sensuous indulgence and tbe man or

we take It that the great majority of I spoons and forks and things. I really folk have the ordinary blessings of life, i like to lie green about things of that

meaning by ‘‘ordinary’” blessings the great blessings, of course, for the common blessings of life are the great ones. We are scandalously obtuse about that. If a woman is hanging out her family

sort. I think it ia a distinction. Only take a little tip from me—one needn't parade this sort of greenness as some men do. There is a type of freeborn American who is so “raw” that he ■ . . . . ; .c

tlon we can never hope for the blessings of good society or the glories of a gov-

ernment by and for the people.

Now let me touch the keynote of tills discussion, which is also the keynote of

Continued on Page Seventeen.