Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/81

 66 Beginning with 1871 the campaign to get rid of the dummies gained momentum. In February of that year the residents requested the Common Council to repeal the permission granted to the railroad, alleging that the signatures on the petition circulated by the railroad for the right of using dummies were fraudulently obtained. The property owners complained further about the smoke and gases and potential danger to life and limb. A hearing was held on March 1 at which testimony generally favorable to the railroad company was voiced, and again on March 12.

The whole of the years 1872 and 1873 passed quietly without any agitation to expel the dummies. Then in 1874 trouble broke out once more. Apparently it was caused by the unwillingness of the South Side company to put down a whole new pavement after replacing all its rails to please the property owners. They sought relief from the State Legislature but the railroad bested them at Albany. They then sued the company in the name of one of the aggrieved property owners, who recovered a judgment of $1500. It was appealed and the Court of Appeals confirmed the judgment of the lower court. Another suit for $500 was instituted with a like result. Inasmuch as the company had a mile and a half of track, there was a cheerful prospect of being mulcted of a million dollars. When the company went into bankruptcy in October 1874 the property owners considered it an evasion to end the suits.

Early in 1875 the embattled property owners of South Eighth Street and Boerum Street found a champion to redress their alleged wrongs, one Jacob Worth, an Assemblyman representing Williamsburgh at Albany. Worth, recognizing an issue when he saw one, and realizing this could be an important step on his political ladder, presented a bill in the Assembly for the abolition of the Eastern District dummies. The Brooklyn Eagle raised its powerful voice against the passage of the bill, insisting that the property owners of one street had no right to deprive a whole city of rail transportation and that the general welfare was paramount.

When the bill came up for hearing, the South Side RR argued that it had spent about $50,000 for four dummy engines, had built a large and handsome depot at South Eighth Street and would be subject to a loss of at least $100,000 by the change.