Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1872-08-29
The Comforts Of a Sleeping
Car.
BY H. H.

ht OSuch IHc Chion L dciuc rallrOaQ
ends and the Central Pacific railroad be-
gins. The Pullman drawing-room cars
also end, and the silver-palace cars be-
gin; and we are told that there are
good reasons why no mortal can en-
gage section of sleeping-car to be
ready for him at Ogden on any particu-
lar day. Through passengers" must
be accommodated first. s'Through
passengers" no doubt, see the justice of
this. Way passengers cannot be ex-
pected to. But we do most emphatical-
ly realize the bearing of it when we ar
rive at Ogden from salt Lake City ct
4 O'Clock in the afternoon, and find anx-
ious men standing patiently in line,
forty deep, before the ticket-office. bid
ing their chance of having to sit up for
the two nights which must be spent on
the road between Ogden and San Fran
cisco. 1t was desperate hour for that
ticket agent; and the crowd was study
for an artist. Most to be pitied of all
were the married men, whose nervous
wives kept plucking them by the coat
tails and drawing them out of the line
once in five minutes, to propose utterly
impracticable devices for circumventing
or hurrying the ticketagent. Idon't know
whether reveal things which should
be hid, or whether the information
would be of value upon all days; but
there is side window to that ticket
office, and a superintendent sometimes
stands near it, and, by lifting green
curtain, conversations can be carried on,
and money and tickets passed in and
out. Neither do l know how many, if
any, of the forty unfortunates rode all
the way bedless to San Francisco; for
our first anxiety as to whether we should
each get "section" was soon merged
in our second, which was almost as great
what we should do with ourselves in
it. A latent sense Of justice restrains
me from attempting to describe sec
ton. 1t is impossible to be just to
person or thing disliked. dislike
the sleeping-car sections more than
ever have disliked, ever shall dislike, or
ever can dislike anything in the world.
Therefore, l will not describe one.
will speak only of the process of going
to bed and getting up in it. Fancy
mattress laid on the bottom shelf in
your cupboard, and the cupboard-door
shut. You have previously made choice
among your possessions which ones you
will have put underneath your shelf,
where you can not get at them, and
which ones you must have, and will
therefore keep all night on the foot of
your bed Chat is, on your own feet.
Accurate memory and judicious selec-
ton, under such circumstances, are inn
possible. No sooner is the cupboard
door shut than you remember that sew
eral indispensable articles are under the
shelf. But the door is locked, and you
can't get out. BY which mean that
the porter has put up the curtain in
front Of your section, and Of the oppo-
site section, and you have partially un-
dressed, and can't step out into the mar
row aisle without tencountering the Eng
lish gentleman, who is going by to heat
water on the stove at the end of the car
and, even if you didn't encounter him,
you can't get at the things which have
been slowed away under the shelf, un-
less you lie down at full length on the
floor to reach them; and you can't lie
down at full length on the floor, because
most of the floor is under your oppo-
site neighbor's shelf. So l said the
door was locked simply to express the
hopelessness of the situation. Then
you sit cross-legged OH your bed; be-
cause, of course, you can't sit on the
edge of the shelf after the cupboard
door is shut--that is, the curtain Is put
up so close to the edge of your bed that,
if you do sit there in the natural hu-
man manner, your knees and feet will
be in the way Of the English gentle
man when he passes. Sitting cross
legged on your bed, you take off a few
of your clothes, If you have courage /;
and then you cast about to think what
you shall do with them. 1t is quite
light in the cupboard, for there Is lit
tie kerosene lamp in a tiny glass-tloored
niche in the wall and It gives light
enough to show you that there isn't q
nook or an edge Of anything on which
a single article caR be hung. You gaze