The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-08-15
A Night in a Sleeping Car.

niSnI passeu In q sleeping car. Her
experience will refresh the memory of
every person who has ever travelled in one
OF these inventions of modern civilization I
At Ogden the Union Pacific Railroad
ends and the Central Pacific Railroad be-
gins. The Pullman drawing room cars
also end, and the silver palace cars begin !;
aud we are told that there are good
reasons why no mortal can engage section
OF sleeping car to be ready for him at
Ogden on any particular day. "Through
passengers must be accommodated first.
Through passengers" no doubt, see the
justice of this. Way passengers cannot
be expected to. But we do most
emphatically realize the bearing of it
when we arrive at Ogden from Salt Lake
City at o'clock in the afternoon, and
hnd anxious men standing patiently in
line, forty deep, before the ticket Office.
biding 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 plueking them by the coat
tails and drawing them out of the line
once 10 five minutes, to propose utterly
lmpracticable devices for circumventing
or hurryins the ticket agent. L do not
know whether [ reveal things which
should be hid, or whether the iDforma
would be of value upon all days; but
there is a side window to that ticket Office,
and a superintendent sometimes stands
near it, and by lifting green curtain,
conversations can be carried on, aud
money and tickets passed in and out
Neither do | 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 get a
section" was soon merged in our second,
which was almost as great-what we
should do with ourselves in it. 4 latent
sense Of justice restraints me from attempt
ing to describe a section. 1t is imp possible
to be Just to person or thing disliked.
dislike the sleeping car sections more
than | ever have dislikcd, ever shall dis
like. or ever can dislike anything In the
world. Therefore, | will not describe
one. [ will speak only of the process of
goiug 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 underneath your shelf, where
you cannot 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 feet). Accurate memory and
judicious selection, under such circum-
stances, are impossible. No sooner is the
cupboard door shut than you remember
that several indispensable articles are
under the shelf But the door is locked,
and you cant get out By which [ mean
the porter has put up the curtain in front
of your section, and of the opposite sec.
tiou, aud you have partly undressed, and
can't step out iuto the narrow aisle with
out encounterins the English gentleman,
who is going by to heat water Ga 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 your shelf, unless 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 opposite neighbor's shelf. So
said the door was locked simply to ex.
press the hopelessness of the situation.
Then you sit cross-legged on your bed
because, 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 human man
ner, your knees and feet will be in the
way of the English gentleman 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 a
little kerosene lamp 10 tiny glassdoored
niche in the wall; aud it gives light
enough to show that there isn't hook or
an edge of anything on which single
article can be huug. You gaze dreariy
around on the smooth, shining panels of
hard wood 1t is very handsome cup
board, good deal plated, besides being
made of fue hard woods, into which you
can't drive even pin. At last you have
an inspiration. You stand up on the
edge of your bed, and, grasping the belt
of your dress firmly in each hand, boldly
thrust one arm out above the curtain, and
hook the belt above the curtain rod. 1t
swings safely You sink back trump
haut and exhausted come down on your
travelling bag, and upset it; the cork
comes out Of the hartshorn bottle, and the
hartshorn ruus into the borax. (Of course,
you can't cross the Alkali Desert without
a good supply of counter alkalis). by
the time you have saved the remainder of
these, and propped the travelling bag up
again, you are frightfulIy cramped from
sitting so long cross legged. So You lie
out straight few minutes to rest. Then