The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-03-28

casions to "check" my heavy baggage by
rail to various points in advance on my route,
and never in single instance did l expert
ence any difficulty in procuring delivery OF 1t
on the production of my "checks."
On my return at the end of November, and
having no use for rugs, &C., and in the COM
Portable cars, checked all my baggage save
dressing bag, from station not far from
the Manitoba frontier, straight through to
New York. On my arrival there three days
afterwards, instead of Checking " my bag
gage to the hotel where intended to put up,
T :. checked " it to the dock of the steamer by
which was to sail the following morning;
and there, in driving from the hotel, l found
it awaiting me at the shore end OF the gang
way as I was about to embark having
once seen or troubled myself about it since l
left Litchfeld, 1000 miles away, and having
changed cars and lines of road twice-at st.
Paul and Chicago
Now, mark the contrast. I arrive at Liver
pool, give up my baggage to the Northwest
Railroad Company, without any voucher or
check being interchanged, and proceed to
Lime street by q suburban railway from the
dock gates in evil-smelling carriages which
my American fellow-travelers scornfully stig
matised as hunks" and into which we were
locked like criminals. 1t was wet, gloomy
day, and after my pleasant American expe-
riences I felt like one who had leone down
in the world" On afterwards applying for
my baggage at Lime street station, was not
only obliged to produce my card as evidence
of identity, but I had to go down in deep,
dark cellar to point out the packages; and
after all this unnecessary bother had to pay
more than at New York, where baggage was
is a mere secondary consideration. 1t is the
restless anxiety and worry our system-or
rather entire want of system-needlessly i'm
pose on you from starting till arriving at your
destination that is so provoking.
And it may not be inappropriate here to
remark on the gratuitous farce presented at
the examination of passengers baggage by
the Custom House officers. Seeing that
cigars are dearer and infinitely worse in
America than at home, and that no sane per-
son would think of smuggling bottle of
odd Bourbon" what can be the object of
exposing passengers to the humiliating ordeal
of opening and turning over the contents of
their portmanteaus in windy dock ware
house, unless it be from sheerly stupid
traditional custom, and to furnish employ
ment to a set of seedy persons whose appear
ance and manners are not calculated to pre-
dispose the stranger in favor of the country
that welcomes him in this fashion. Of course
nothing contraband was discovered on this
OCCASION and never is, as | was told by one
of the dock officials, who evidently regarded
the searchers as a questionable 81 lot" In a
free trade country, such as ours, this rigorous
examination of baggage is relic of barbar-
ism and the saving of the state from abo-
lition of these Custom House myrmidoms
would, l am sure, far more than compen-
safe for any possible loss to the revenue from
the act of an occasional Unconditional passen-
ger. Nothing would more effectually serve
to hasten the conversion of our American
cousins to the doctrine and practice of free
trade than to welcome them to British soil
without having to undergo the forbidding
ordeal they have at present to encounter on
landing on their own shores.
respectfully submit the suggestion to the
consideration of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.
But the most remarkable contrast was re-
served for my return to Scotland. Travelling
down by q night train, I was half frozen with
cold till arrival at Carlisle, where we were de-
tanned an hour and a half for the London
train, and where the fire in the waiting room
merely served to remind one how cold and
comfortless the place was. Sleep was out of
the question, and / landed at the Princes
street station stiff and almost numb with cold
At the hotel close by repaired my reduced
morale " with.a hot bath and good Scotch
breakfast. But why should one be thus tor
tured with the cold and rendered miserable
in Difference to an ancient @ use and wont"
that is now becoming obsolete among all
civilized people? In America, if detained
you do not warm your toes at the fire, but sit
in a comfortably warmed room, and you
finish a journey of thousand miles as fresh
and comfortable as when you started.
The climax of my home experiences was
reached at the Waverly station, to which 1