St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-09-26


daintily disposed and Furnished and
rougher portions lightened up by gay
colors and ornamental painting; our
locomotive emits beauty as we'll as
speed along its way. But the Euro
pean affair, even in Italy, home of the
fine arts, where frescoes and landscapes
and aIabesques and medallions are as
abundant as if they few in the air and
stuck to everything sticky, as gnats and
leaves do to freshly painted houses, the
locomotive is as homely mass of iron
as the human imagination can invent.
To match such superb bridges, stations
and tunnels, one would look for some
thing better, at least in the countries OF
Brunelleschi and Kaulbach. Not a
thought or a centime seems to have
been spent on form or coloring, and we
are drawn over those fine roads and
amid those homes of beautiful art by
engines whose pieces have been put to-
gether with an eye simply to efficiency,
and every part that does not play upon
some other part, painted dingy green,
perhaps relieved by some stripings of
black, huge hulks of homeliness. The
note of the American species is not
generally admired, but it has kept pace
with the rest of the machine in i'm
provement, and has certainly grown
more mellow and musical in the lapse of
years. The European species retains
still the wild squeal of the undeveloped
age. 1t must be also as uncOuth and
uncomfortable to the engine men as it
is unattractive to other people. On
some roads l saw little shelter, pro-
jecting a foot or two over their heads,
but usually a mere wall before them,
with windows, is all the protection the
engineer and fireman have against the
weather.
The cars are almost universally short
er than in America. The longest are
about the length of our long freight
cars. They usually run on six wheels,
constituting single truck-a style of
running gear which transforms most
readily every unevenness of track,
whether lateral OF vertical, into COR
responding jerk of the traveller, with
whom, but for the perfection of the
tracks, it would go hard indeed. The
wheels of every species of vehicle, are
almost universally cast with spokes,
and have steel tires bolted on. One re-
marks the almost entire absence OF
brakes and other hanging apparatus
under the cars. This with their skeleton
like wheels makes them look open be-
low, and high, almost as if on stills.
The brakes are confined to the lOcomO-
tive and the rear car, and in long trains
one or more brake cars between. In
these cars the guards ride, keeping
watch of the train from projections at
the sides and towers above, that fur
nish good view but complete the dis
fgurement of the train, so well begun
by the locomotive. The signal cord is
not unknown, but where used is hung
outside, under the caves.
The freight cars, called "goods wag-
ons" in England, are in Great Britain
generally open, what we call platforms
or flats, and provided with tarpaulins,
which in that moist climate, must be in
requisition at least often enough to pre-
vent their getting lost. Coal is gener-
ally moved in sacks whether in transit
or in city delivery. On the continent
box cars are the more common, and
made of iron.
The lighting of the passenger cars
everywhere alike, for night service
and by day where tunnels are frequent
is overhead by tubular lamps, set in
glass bowls, that catch all drippings
They are reached from the roof.
The radical difference between Ameri-
can and foreign passenger cars, is in the
compartment plan. The European cal
is simply the old stage coach or, rath,
er, several coaches set in one frame
Often the outlines of the stage cOacl
are preserved on the outside as if t.
suggest the line of descent. In Othel
words, the vehicle is divided by parti
tions into several small rooms having
doors at the ends,-that is, at the side
of the car-and two seats, each marked
off by head and arm rests as for thre,
or four persons. These sit facing othe
three or four, one seatfull riding back
ward. In England, and again in Swift
zerland, we rode once or twice in car
which we're entered from platforms a
the ends, as in America. Sometime
but one partition divides the space, a
in the cars which took us from Harwicl
to London. But the universal ain
seems to be to divide the travellers in
to companies of six or eight, and pre-
vent all communication with others
If these six or eight are acquainted, ant
mutually agreeable, the plan has it
J advantages. 1t is a convenience too il
certain cases of sickness, or in taking
, lunatic to an asylum, or criminal t.
/ Jail. But even in these cases the ad
vantages are as well secured by ou
, drawing room cars. In other cases th
, disadvantages are manifold. The pub
licity of large car is almost abso
lutte defense against personal assault 0
insult such as often does happen, an