RAILWAY TRAVEL IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADAS.
Travel in the United States and Canada virtually comprises but two
kinds of conveyance, the railway and the steamboat. Once the
stage-coach was an American feature, and it still remains in some
parts of the country, but the rapid advance of the railway has almost
swept it out of existence, and where it still lingers it is but the
shadow of its former self. Long ago we had the canal-boat, a slow but
remarkably safe mode of locomotion; it could not leave the track or be
overturned, nor could it explode; The water beneath it was so shallow
that it could not sink, and in case it took fire you had only to step
ashore and be out of danger. But the canal-boat is a thing of the
past, with here and there an exception still more rare than that of
the stage-coach. We are a progressive people, and when the quicker
mode of travel was developed the old was forgotten and sent into
obscurity.
Until within the last fifteen or twenty years we had but a single
class of passenger cars in America, as the emigrant trains on a few of
the trunk lines were hardly to be considered by travelers, but the
invention of the palace and sleeping-coaches (generally coupled with
the name of Pullman, their inventor), has given us two classes which
are virtually as distinct as are the first and second of a continental
railway. Hardly a train runs on any road of consequence without a
Pullman car attached, and a seat may be had in this vehicle on payment
of an extra fee. There is the parlor car for day use only, but the
"sleeper" is intended for both day and night. By the magic wand of a
colored porter the seats are converted into comfortable beds, and the
traveler may be whirled along at the rate of thirty miles an hour, and
all the while he sleeps as calmly as at home. Toilet-rooms are at the
ends of every carriage, one for gentlemen and the other for ladies,
where you may perform your ablutions and put your hair in shape, so as
to present as creditable an appearance as when starting on your
journey. That "necessity is the mother of invention" is well
exemplified in the history of the Pullman car. The great distances to
be traveled in America called for something which should soften the
asperities of sitting in an ordinary seat by night as well as by day.
Step by step the work went on, till finally we have the perfection of
railway travel.
The expense of a place in a parlor or sleeping-car on American
railways varies from two to three dollars for twenty-four hours, with
the addition of a fee to the porter of 25 cents a day. For this he
looks after your personal needs, polishes your boots, and opens or
closes your bed when you desire it. There has been considerable
mystery relative to the sleeping hours of a porter in a palace car on
long routes, as he appears to be on duty all the time from one day's
beginning to another. It is suspected that he belongs to a race apart
from the rest of humanity, and is so constituted that he never sleeps.
The tickets for the palace car are not usually sold at the same place
as the regular passenger tickets, but at a separate window or in an
office by itself. It is well to secure your place in advance, as the
cars are often crowded and you may arrive at a station to start on a
long journey and find that every bed has been sold. Places may be
secured hours and days ahead, and the earlier you take them the better
choice do you have. The tickets for the car are collected by a
conductor, and if any places are unsecured he can sell them to those
who apply for them.
Never buy your tickets, either for passage or for a place in a palace
car, of strangers in the street or of chance "runners." Such tickets
may be good, but the probabilities are not in their favor, while there
can be no doubt about the tickets at the regular offices. Where there
are rival routes it is often difficult to get the exact facts
concerning them, as the runners are apt to be inexact about the merits
of their own lines or the demerits of others. They have been known to
state that the track of a rival railway had been torn up and sold for
old iron in order that a dividend might be declared to the
stockholders, and the steamboat agent who told a timid old lady that
his company had removed all the boilers from their boats, so as to
destroy the possibility of an explosion, is not without imitators.
Beware of playing cards with strangers who wish to start a friendly
game of euchre which is subsequently changed to draw-poker or some
other seductive and costly amusement. This advice is superfluous in
case you are in the gambling line yourself, and confident that you can
"get away" with any adversary you may be pitted against. Be cautious,
however, about "waking up the wrong passenger," as not unfrequently
happens to skilled performers with cards.
On most of the railways each passenger has an allowance of 100 pounds
of baggage, but it is never weighed unless the amount is greatly in
excess. West of the Missouri river they are more particular, and all
trunks must pass the scales. On the Pacific railways all extra baggage
above the allowance is charged for at a certain rate per pound, but on
the eastern roads the extra charge is generally for the trunk or box
without much regard to its weight. On most of the eastern roads a
passenger can take a single trunk without extra payment, even though
it may rival a square piano in size. Sometimes a question about extra
trunks may be settled by a fee to the man in charge of the
baggage-room of the station or the baggage-car of the train. The
passenger's ticket must be shown at the baggage-room, where a metal
check will be given to the place of destination. The check secured,
the traveler may proceed to the palace or other car of the train and
give his trunk no farther consideration till he nears the place to
which it is checked.
Baggage expresses exist in most of the large cities. They undertake to
deliver your impedimenta on payment of a fee of from 25 to 50 cents
for each parcel, at any hotel or private residence in the place, on
the surrender of your check. If you are in a hurry and must have your
trunk within a few hours after your arrival, it will be unsafe to
trust to the baggage express; the agent who passes through the train
to collect the checks will assure you that your baggage will be
delivered within an hour of arrival, but if you ask a written
guarantee to that effect he will be pretty sure to refuse it, and
admit that he does not know when the delivery will take place. The
writer speaks knowingly and feelingly of his experience with baggage
expresses in New York; in only one instance in a period covering more
than twenty years has a baggage express delivered his trunk or valise
in the time promised by the agent, and he has been compelled to wait
all the way from two to ten hours beyond the time stipulated. On one
occasion a trunk that was promised for 7 A.M. was delivered at 8.30
P.M., and on another a valise promised for 2 P.M. did not reach its
destination till 11 P.M. and the driver of the wagon demanded extra
payment for night delivery.
Carriages from railway stations are always to be had, and in some of
the cities, notably in Boston, the rates are reasonable and honestly
stated, and the service is good and prompt. In New York very little
can be said in praise of the carriage system, as the drivers are
inclined to make as much as possible out of the stranger within the
gates, and are more likely to overcharge him than to state the proper
and legal fare. Most of the large hotels have their own coaches at the
stations on arrival of the principal trains, not only in New York but
in other cities, and by taking one of these coaches the traveler will
greatly lessen the probabilities of being defrauded. If he intends to
take a carriage from the station, and has only ordinary baggage, he
will not give his checks to the express agent, but will hand them over
to the driver whom he engages.
In the western cities there is an omnibus system of a very
satisfactory character. As you approach a city, an agent of the
omnibus company (generally called a Transfer Company) passes through
the train, and interrogates each passenger. You state your
destination--whether hotel, private house, or another railway
station--surrender your baggage check, and with it your transfer
ticket, if you have one; or if not, you pay a fee of from twenty-five
to fifty cents. The agent tells you the number or letter of the
omnibus you are to enter, and when you arrive at the station you find
the vehicles drawn up in a row against the platform. Selecting the one
that is to carry you, you enter it, and in a little while it moves
off, followed by the wagon that holds your trunk. You are taken with
reasonable directness to your destination, the omnibus sometimes
making slight detours to drop passengers along its route. The same
vehicles take passengers to the stations, and, by leaving notice at
the company's office, you can be called for in any part of the city,
at any hour you name.
Most of the American cities are well provided with street railways, or
tramways, and with cheap omnibuses that ply along the principal
streets. To make use of these to advantage, a knowledge of the city is
necessary; but strangers will have little difficulty in securing the
proper directions by applying to a policeman. Professional guides are
unknown in American cities, but the services of a bootblack or other
small and somewhat ragged boy can generally be secured to put the
traveler on the right track.
On all the lines of railway there are eating-stations, where
passengers may save themselves from starvation, and generally do a
good deal more. The time allowed varies greatly, but the usual limit
is twenty minutes; on some lines it is half an hour, while on others a
quarter of an hour is deemed sufficient. The price of a "square meal"
varies from fifty cents to a dollar, and there are a few places where
it is a dollar and a quarter. The square meal is not, as might be
supposed, a dinner, supper, or breakfast in the form of a cube; it
includes the right of eating as much as one pleases from any or all
the dishes on the bill of fare, and if the traveler chooses to repeat,
again and again, any favorite article of food, the proprietor offers
no objection. The service is generally good, and the supply of food
palatable and bountiful. The majority of travelers, are apt to eat
with considerable velocity at these stopping-places, and there are few
spots in the world where one can witness greater dexterity with knife
and fork than where a railway train halts "fifteen minutes for
refreshments." The performances of the East Indian juggler are thrown
in the shade, and the famous swordsman of Runjeet Singh, who could
wield his weapon with such rapidity that it was altogether invisible
while removing the head of an antagonist, might learn something if he
would make a visit to the eating-house of an American railway.
Those who do not wish a full meal will generally find a counter at the
eating-stations where coffee, tea, sandwiches, and cold meats may be
bought cheaply, and on some roads there are stations where the trains
stop for five or ten minutes only, to enable passengers to take a
slight lunch, of a solid or liquid character. On many of the roads the
sale of intoxicating liquors is forbidden; but these are not held to
include beer, cider, and light wines.
It is a good rule for a traveler never to miss the opportunity of
taking a meal. Sometimes the hours are a trifle inconvenient, and he
may not feel hungry when an eating-station is reached; but if he
allows it to pass he will find himself faint with hunger before he
comes to the next. On long journeys it is well to carry a lunch-basket
of such things as may strike the owner's fancy and palate, but care
should be taken to avoid articles that give out disagreeable odors.
Limburger cheese is not to be recommended--nor, in fact, cheese of any
sort; cold tongue is another objectionable article, as it will not
keep many hours, and has a way of smelling badly, or even worse.
Crackers, English biscuit, and fruit, with a bottle of claret or some
similar drink, are the best things for a railway lunch-basket, and
sometimes they tend greatly to preserve the temper unruffled, by
filling an aching void when the train is delayed and the square meal
unattainable.
On several of the great lines running westward, dining and hotel cars
have been established. The latter are both eating and sleeping-coaches
in one, but they are not generally in favor, as it is found in actual
practice that the smell of cookery is disagreeable to the slumberer,
while that of the sleeping-room is not acceptable to the nostrils when
one sits down to breakfast or dinner. The dining-car is kitchen and
dining-room, and nothing more. It is attached to the train at a
convenient time for a meal, and runs with it for a couple of hours or
so, when it is turned to a side track and waits to serve the next
banquet for a train going the other way. The dining-car is a most
admirable institution, as it enables the traveler to take his meals
leisurely while proceeding on his way. It is generally well-managed
and liberally supplied, and one may be fed as bountifully, and on as
well-cooked food, as in the majority of hotels. On some of these
cars meals are served _a la carte_; but the most of them have the
fixed-price system, at the same rates as the stations along the lines
where they run.
In the parlor cars, your seat is designated on a ticket specially
marked and numbered, and no one has any right to occupy it during your
absence. On the ordinary cars, the seats are common property, and
cannot be retained; though it is almost universally recognized that
the deposit of an overcoat, shawl, bag, or some other article of the
travelers equipment in a seat is _prima facie_ evidence that it has
been taken. Impudent persons will sometimes remove the property of one
who is temporarily absent, and appropriate the seat to themselves; but
they generally vacate it on being reasoned with. If they are
obstinate, the conductor may be called, and sometimes the muscular
persuasion of a strong brakeman or two is necessary to convince the
intruder of his mistake.