New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-02
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
TEN DAYS IN LONDON-No. VII.
FROM LIVERPOOL TO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS RAIL
WAYS - TRAVELLING COMPANIONS - EIMBLE
PORTERS-HORsES AND CABMEN.

one of the first novel impressions which he receives
is from the English system of railway conveyance To
begin WITH he hears the English speak of rail-
roads, it is always railways; the cars are carriages
the conductor is guard the freight train is goods
train and the travel on the line is traffic This last
expression, by the 10y, sounded very odd to me
when first heard it on former visit from the lips
OF London cabman, who thought had picked up
cockney vulgarsm, and rather prded himself on the
use OF big word 1t is the regular term,
however, all over England for the amount
OF travel and freight on railways and
as such figures in annual reports and par
liamentary debates. / have noticed its occasional
use in the same sense by railroad men at home but
whatever the abuses of our American modes of loco
notion we cannot be charged with such peryersion
of our mother English. But to return to orr main
point, namely, how we ride from Liverpool to Lon
don. The distance is not much 23O miles about
the same as from NewYork to Boston For this Jour
ney you pay 81 Is IN first class carriage or - %
of our money in gold or a fraction three cents
and three-quarters mile. For all baggage over ll2
pounds you pay penny and half pound, which
with the usual American habit of carrying the con-
tents of dry-goods store in the wardrobe amounts
to a very pretty sum. The confusion at starting
is much less than at our stations Great
pains are taken to inform the travellers OK
the little details of the journey. No one need make
mistake or get into bother through ignorance of
the arrangements. Signs and placards abound show.
ing the way in, and the way out and the destination
Of the trains You in little danger of getting
into the wrong carriage which is comfort. Then
the disposition of the baggage, though our system
# checks is unknown, is found to work we'll practi-
cally, and has certain superior advantages. This,
however, suppOses degree of intelligence, pains
taking, and wish to obge on the part of the ser
wants of the road which HIbenian baggage
smashers would scorn to exercise. On alghtDg
from the carriage which takes You from yonr hotel,
you at once put in charge OF one OF the ohciai
porters, Tuddy, athletic young man. dressed in
neat plush uniform, who shows you to vacant
seat, disposes of the little traps which You
carry in your hand, attends to the weighing Of your
heavy trunks which he losses up as if they were so
many kittens, and placing them in a small luggage
van near your carriage, so that arriving at your
journeys end you easily find them without the dire
annoyance of selecting them by check from the pro-
miscuous mass belonging to several hundred passen
gers, as is your doom at an American station This
saves the extra charge for express TO take home
your trunks several hours after your arrival and is
amply paid fol- by an English siXpence, value of
Newly shilling, though our Open-handed green
horns from America usually improve the occasion
for the disbursement of three or four times that
amount at which the stalwart porter takes off his hat
with redOubled energy. while the English 6ystander
laughs in his sleeve. The carriage is close corpo-
ration, roOmy, elegant and with all imaginable
means and appliances for a luxurious journey. tvs
divided into six seats which are, in fact capacious
arm. chairs daintily cushioned with soft support
for me back and head. ample racks for your carpet
bags and boxes frame for your hat, as 10 is taken
for granted you know enough to travel in n light
cap and convenient supports for the If you
travelling with party, though not large enough TO
fill the carriage you Will most probably DO
the sole occupants: otherwise, You will have
a chance TO some excellent specimens Of
the British population. The men are generally
asleep or buried in their newspapers the Gus
tom elsewhere though often you find them commu-
nicative always obliging and courteous and some
times chatty and agreeable. John Bull is certainly
not ALWAYS the rough grabbed fellow that he is taken
for and if YOU treat him well, and let him have his
own way you Will find him an interesting, and ire
auently an instructive companion on the road
have picked up a deal of information in this way,
though believe l have never asked a question of
stranger until he had first set me the example
himself.
In every part of England that have visited, the
road passes over q delicious landscape. The depth
and freshness of the verdure is perpetual surprise.
You are struck with the general absence of forest
and even solitary trees are comparatively few. The
fields everywhere show the cOnsummate thrift and
care of English husbandry every acre is picture and
as Emerson remarks appears TO have been cultivated
with the pencil rather than the pillow. The busy
manufacturing villages which you see at little dis
lance with the smoke Of many furnaces refresh the
brilliant monotOny of English agriculture, and
relieve the eye from the spectacle of its dazzling
splendors.
But the dim haze which begins to hover over the
landscape and the charming rural villas which dis
aaah cid nm
that we are fast approaching the great metropolis Of
commercial civilization The train rolls soemny
through several dingy streets till we come to stop
at the grand station Euston-square. Our entrance
ia auiet and without confusion. No anxious friends
throng the carriages to ascertain the arrival Oh eA
pected guests No vociferous hackmen make
daylight hdeous by their fmaddening yeiis'
The cabs stand at q respeclul uistahco
outside the Enclosure, and wall ior 'no
summons of passengers, without urging their ser
vices You have the astonishing Outht lor pro
tracted European tour and look for carriage that
can Laar small we'll packed house on the Top ohe
of this description soon answers 10 your CALL Oh"
with n nod to the attentive porter, who mas meeky
nrasented himself O few minutes since, yon point
ONT the van in which you left your baggage on start
ing from Liverpool You need 30 check Tor there
ara but few trunks beside your own. They have
been 40 distributed at intervals throughout the
train rs 70 prevent any inconveniont accumulation
at a single point The porter, in grim silence, owes
into the van drawing out your heavy trunks, as IL
they were all bandboxes and shoudering Tie most
mountainous one, with the of young giant, ue-
posits them on the one-horse coach III the WHINING
of an eye bright shilling seems to make Nun per
fectly happy aud you depart in triumph wohusrms
whether the ancient craft that bears you wiz hos
break down before you reach your hotel bu' mere
is no danger ON that score The carriage Is stronger
than il looks and rattles through the streets as II