—From “Underground Empire” by Milton MacKaye, from the July 11, 1936, issue of The Saturday Evening Post
All trains enter Manhattan by underground, and the terminals are equipped with many and varied below-level shops. Shoes, shirts, and sealing wax, ham sandwiches, drugs, and dress suits may be had for the asking. An expedition could be outfitted without ever climbing to the street.
Subways will take the visitor directly into the basements of four or five busy department stores, or into the bowels of any of a half-dozen of the greatest office buildings in the financial district.
The possibilities of subterranean adventuring are too many for full exploration. Dining and dancing are available recreations, there is a motion-picture theater which may be entered directly from the subway, a marriage license may be had at the Municipal Building, almost any kind of business transacted — all without ever seeing the sun.
This article is featured in the July/August 2026 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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