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ONLY a few years before MR. PUNCH began his long and brilliant career
had passenger trains and a regular system of railway travelling come
into existence. In his early days it was still very much of a novelty to
undertake a journey of any length by train; a delightful uncertainty
prevailed not only as to the arrival at a given destination, but equally
as to getting away from a starting-place. Naturally, the pens and
pencils of his clever contributors were then frequently in use to
illustrate the humours of railway travel, and even down to the present
time MR. PUNCH has not failed to find in the railway and its
associations "a source of innocent merriment."
It must be admitted that some thirty years ago the pages of PUNCH
literally teemed with biting satires on the management of our railways,
and the fact that his whole-hearted denunciations of the inefficient
service, the carelessness which resulted in frequent accidents, the
excessive charges, the inadequate accommodation, could have been allowed
to pass without numerous actions for libel, is proof of the enormous
advantages which the present generation enjoys in this great matter of
comfortable, rapid and inexpensive transit. Where MR. PUNCH in his
wrath, as voicing the opinion of the public, was wont to ridicule and
condemn the railways and all associated therewith, we to-day are as
ready, and with equal reason, to raise our voice in praise. But ridicule
is ever a stronger impulse to wit than is appreciation, and in these
later days when we are all alive to the abounding merits of our railway
system MR. PUNCH has had less to say about it. If we were to cull from
his pages written in the days of his wrath we might be held guilty of
presenting a gross travesty of the conditions now obtaining. Thus it is
that in one or two cases only have we retained passages from his earlier
chronicles, such as "Rules for the Rail" and "The Third-Class
Traveller's Petition," which have some historical value as reminders
that the railway comfort of the present day presents a remarkable
contrast to the not very distant past.
To-day every member of the community may be regarded as a railway
traveller, so large a part does the railway play in modern life; and it
will be admitted that, with all our improvements, the element of humour
has not been eliminated from our comings and goings by train. We trust
it never may. Here, then, is a compilation of the "best things,"
literary and pictorial, that have appeared in MR. PUNCH'S pages on the
subject, and with his cheery presence as our guard, let us set forth
upon our excursion into the Realm of Fun!
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