The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-18
CRUISING ON THE RAIL.
The Great Fun That May BE Got Out ofSteam
Travel with Right Management.

Travel with Right Management.
New York sun.
A good-natured and talkative conductor on the
Pennsylvania road leaned against the stove in
the smoking-car of an incoming train the other
day, and remarked to a passenger who smoked
near him: You have no idea how rallroading
grows on n man. The more you railroad the
more you want to. Any other life seems as fat
as dishwater compared to it, and from the way
that things are advancing in rairoading it looks
very much as if there would never be a limit to
the fun that can be enjoyed. just now the
great scheme is to go cruising round on the rail
road. You talk about going off in a steam yacht.
Why, it can't be compared to yachting on a rail
road"
"What do you mean?"
8"Nhy, q man can go yachting over the Ameri-
can continent with more comfort and pleasure
than he can over the Atlantic ocean. 1t will
cost him a good deal of money, but not as much
as it will to run a big yacht, and he will have no
end of fun. Fogs will not affect him; he can live
like a prince on the fat of the land, and just
drift from one place to another. The only cost
will be for mileage over the roads and the sala-
ries of the engineer, fireman, conductors, cook,
brakeman and attendants. He can have any
sort of an engine he wants. 1t can be gold
plated from stem to stern, and have an alabaster
bust of Venus on the cowcatcher if he is willing
to pay for it. He can buy his own engine and
car or he can own his car alone and hire an
engine on each division as ne goes over the rail
road system of the country. If / were going to
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the proper style.
''there are a great many men, you know,
who have their own cars. They hitch them to
the tail end of express trains and go about
from one watering place to another, or off on
little picnics with parties of friends. Actors
and actresses actually find it cheaper to travel
this way than to live at hotels. / saw the car
last Thursday in which Boucicault travels. 1t
is fitted up so as to accommodate his entire
troupe, including everybody and the light lug
gage of the company. They eat, sleep, and
travel in this car, have no hotel bills, and thus
come back to almost the same conditions that
characterized their Observation-Disclosures,
who were known as play actors, and who went
about the country in a caravan. l heard of a
man who came in our Office a few weeks ago
who had an ambitious scheme in this line. He
wanted to hire a special engine and car and
take a trip over the entire systems OF the coun-
try. His idea was to sell railroad supplies of
every sort. He wanted to supply the needs of
the big round-houses as well as the station mas
tiers. and he was going to sell everything from
car wheels to potted plants. He also expected
to drum for a railroad supply house in New
York. He expected to make such a reputation
by his unusual way of travelling as to earn a for
tune in five years. The scheme didn't go. Our
superintendent didn't see it, and he had to give
it up"
isn't there more or less danger to regular
passenger trains from these specials flying over
the roads,"
Not on any road on which the trains are we'll
SNS CIV hSAGA ANA' NAbASN SeN
start out at any point of this road. for instance,
and make a trip without the slightest danger of
collision, to any point. The system of signals is
perfect, and the trains are run on time. l don't
know how it would go in the South" added the
conductor refiectively, las they are often a bit
behind time there. No Southern gentleman
believes in business-like punctuality. Most
of the Southern engineers are Southern gentle
men. They run their trims down there in a
way that would make a Northern engineer trem-
BILE from head to foot. When the engineer gets
good and ready to start he jumps aboard, lights
a pipe, says goodbye to his friends, and lets her
go. Probably at the first station he stops at q
mule will appear in the distance, bearing on his
back an aged eolored man. TIL engineer stops
the train, and goes out ana sits on the fence and
swaps stories with the fireman while they wait
for the mule to draw near. When he arrives
the negro tells them his master wants to catch
the train. Presently the master is seen in the
distance. The train waits his arrival and starts
on again. No collisions ever occur, because the
trains are so slow there is always plenty of time
to stop before they come together. A cruiser
scooping along at the rate of fifty miles an hour
on one of these roads would have to play leap
frog with the trains, or else hitch on behind"