Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-18
WEALTH ON WHEELS
How Vanderbilt, Gould and Other Rail.
road Kings Fare on Their
Travels.
Cars That Are Complete Houses of the
Most Elegant SOrt-President
JeWett's Palace.
New York Sun.

President Leland Stanford, of the Contra
Pacific railroad, has ordered that palac
car be built in Sacramento for his vile. ]
is to be finished entirely according 10 he
suggestions, and viii cost S25, 900 or $50, 00C
Handsome this will doubtless be, it vii
not be the most expensive private palace ca
In the country. Mrs. Stanford and the build
ers must have rare taste and must have seel
many others if they purpose to make
either the most complete or most beautiful o
its kind.
1t is said that Mr.. William III. Wander
bits car is the most expensive private We
hicle of any kind in the world. Its cost
said to nave been $4,000. 1t is by no mean
the most complete and serviceable, and it ha
no need to be, for it cults the pleasure of tina
railroad monarch to ride only in the daytime
If he ever departs from this rule, the Wayne
| sleeping-car Duchess is coupled on behinC
his coach, and nothing remains to be wished
for then by day or night. His car is named
| the Vanderbilt; aud whereas the exteriors o
| all other private cars are modest In color anC
simple in ornamen', this is yellow, and bear
on each of its sides three oil paintings ir
| panels. One represents the Grand Contra
depot, another the entrance to the Fourth
| avenue sunken track, another Niagara Falls
and others High bridge and the Suspension
bridge. 1t is no longer than Pullman car
| and its windows are wide and long. 1t was
built in the shops of the New York Central
railroad. The interior suggests a palmer
| taste, and, though every appointment is OF
| the best, comfort was more sought there than
elegance. One-halt the interior is grand
| saloon, walled in by big plate-glass windows
tastefully draped, and furnished with table
and plush-covered arm chairs and lounges.
This saloon serves as an observation room
and dining room as we'll. The other half of
the coach is subdivided into smaller apart
ments-a kitchen and pantry together, a
Baker heater in closet by itself with pipes
running from it all around the sides of the
car a passage way, a toilet-room and pri-
vate sitting room containing upholstered
furniture. One of the end platforms is very
wide, and when the lids over the steps are
shut down there is room upon it for several
arm chairs, in which Mr.. Vanderbilt and
his guests may sit out of doors and get an
unobstructed view of the country they may
be passing through.
Until very recently every private car had
an observation platform, as it is called, but
il has been found that its looks promise
more of enjoyment than it yields. The rate
of speed does not have to be tremendous to
cause dust-Iaden under current of air and
smoke-and- cinder- weighted upper current
10 curve in at the end of the car and be
hurled upon that platform as though the
u
that was its mouth. Pretty nearly all the
coveted advantages of the observation plat
form are gained in the later patterns of pri-
vate cars by windows that reach TO the floor
on either side OF the back door.
Mr.. Vanderbilt has inherited his fathers
fondness for fast travelling, and, in lesser
degree, the old commodore's Partially for
what is known in railroad parlance as "go-
ing special" which is travelling with special
engine on special time, and without regard
to the trains and traffic OF the road. Jim
Fisk, jr., was noted for exercising his ability
to travel in that royal way. He had an en-
CINE hitched to his special car on the Erie
railroad on two minutes notice, and before
he stepped into the car it was his custom to
pause at the cab of the engine and say to the
engineer, "Now, go as fast as you can"
Then, as now, it was a sufficient evidence OF
carefulness Of judgment for an engineer to
have earned place in the passenger SER
vice; and although "Uncle" Green. to-day
wears the gold badge that Fish gave him for
putting the famous relief train through 10
Chicago in unprecedented time when that
city had been swept by fire, one passenger
engineer Is held to rank equally with an
other. In these days, however, partly be-
cause there is less fondness for display among
the railroad men, and partly because the
Tate oil speed Tor -Pe.rcrSrr-trufr1s has been
greatly raised during the past FIVE years, spe-
cial coaches almost invariably run at the end
of regular expresses.
Less than month ago Mr. Vanderbilt in
vited few friends to go with him in his
palace coach on a tour of his roads by day.
light. In distance the journey was greater
than if Europe had been the destination.
The party was TO stop at hotel in some
big city every night, and Toledo was to be
the end OF the first days run. The distance
is 694 miles, yet Mr.. Vanderbilt, although
he did not leave New York until nearly s
o'clock in the morning, expected to make
it by or before dark. 1t was after 10 o'clock
that night before he reached there, yet the
run was a remark able one. The passengers
said that, though mile after mile was made
at the rate of a mile minute, and fifty
miles were frequently Travelled in an hour,
they could not realize that they were going
at anything but an ordinary rate of speed
This they explained by the fact that the car
is mounted on paper wheels of extra size,
is strong, very heavy and we'll bal
anled. Much depends on the engineer,
who, if he slows little on curves, and in
stopping and starting, and in altering
he rate of speed moves gradually, may de-
,eive the passengers with comfortable, even
notion. If he is clumsy and thoughtless
hey will be all but thrown from their seats |
IN curves, and rendered half sick by the tug
,ing and jolting of sudden changes in speed. |
the porters OF the private |
coaches call the illness that rough riding in |
hem provokes, is common malady among |
he women in these excursion parties. In the |
ong journey Mr.. Vanderbilt's guests enjoyed |
he speed told on the muscles, which were
sxed by the constant and powerful back |
yard pressure that pinned every man TO the
Jack of his seat when he eat down and made
quilibrium uncertain when he stood up. 1t |
8 said to be Mr.. Vanderbilt's custom to re-
Tard engineers who please him with speed
nd comfort when he travels.
President Jewelt, of the Erie railroad, has
be richest most complete and most beauti-
III private car on any Eastern railroad.
'ullman built that and three others exactly
Ike it. One of its mates is now on a siding
bove the Grand Central depot. 1t is the
rivate car of Henry Willard, of the Oregon
Hallway and Navigation Company. Mr..
lizard is fitting his with electric lights 1t
ad been cut down in hight in order to suit
he requirements OF a tunnel between Provi-
ence and Boston that appears to practically
NIT 10 its own hight the railway coaches
the continent. When the Sun reporter
Nv Mr.. Wizards coach it was not in quite
lie order in which he afterward found Mr..
ewett's, which was in the Erie depot in
ersey City, ready to go out at a moments
otice. 1t ls about seventy-two feet long, or |
little longer than Pullman palace car.
Inc nrst room Ii walled Win irish Dog
TX, carved and ceiIed with light wood, |
enciled ornately. A chandelier of lamps
overhead, and on the heavy carpet are
lounge, a padded chair and
armchair OF light cane. A big mirror
beveled plate-glass is over the lounge, and {
e end windows are more than six feet long
about half as wide. A hallway wide
Iough for two TO pass in leads to the main
loon. Two doors open from this passage {
ay, one leading to bathroom, whose walls
e of polished mahogany, and containing I
orf, deep bath-tub and marble toilet :
and, and the other 10 private bedroom )
.avily carpeted, hung with drapery, and |
ntaining wine and linen lockers, and a Q
listed bed that shuts up and becomes an :
litation wardrobe OF mahogany, rich in &
rving. The central saloon is beautiful.
any parlor in this city is as small 1;
it. The curves of the ceiling lead
g up to the fsn-lights and veptiIa- :
RS are followed by light veneer, painted !,
tn grotesque patterns. Resplendent !,
ackets OF polished brass and glistening :
ys,al depend from it. Eight or ten
od-sized windows give it light by day,
d between them are carved mahogany
nels and mirrors of beveled plate glass, a
imed in polished brass and fitted under a
ath with prettily designed brass recepta- \
g, for bottles, glasses. books or papers. +
lere are three or four padded chairs, big .
dded lounge. rich oriental draPery, an ex- :;
lsion diRing-t1ble hidden under an Indian u
y, trimmed with BRASS Beyond are four Z
IL |