Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-09-10
RAILROADS.

How They Were Managed In Their In
iancy' and How They Are Managed Now.
notwithstanding the boosted prog
ress that this country is making in
the march of Improvement, it must be
admitted by even the most boisterous
ooaster than an exception to the gen.
eral advance is found in our steam cars.
Very young persons. or persons who
are new to'traveling, may find much
OF comfort in our modern railway
coaches, and therefore satisfaction; but
this satisfaction is born rather of igno-
rance OF the lost comforts of other DAYS
than of enjoyment. per Sc, of the al
legged comforts which have taken their
place.
In that good old time-nevermore
alas! to return--when one entered a
car, his eyes were not blinded by the
light of sun by day nor dazzled by the
glare of countless artificial illuminators
by night. Night and day the car-an
honest interior, suggestive of the
straightforward and geometrically cor
rect pews and severely plain walls and
ceiling of an early New England meet
lighthouse persaded by dim re-
igious light. quite in keeping with the
general atmosphere of solemnity which
surrounded him who took his life and
his carpet-bag in his hand, and COM
mltted himself to the uncertainties and
perils of the rail.
There were no soft, ef'eminate cush-
ions in those grand old days; no cum
ugly coItrived easements to back and
body and legs were imposed upon the
traveller, to rob him of his manliness
and his energy and his powers of re-
sistance; everything was constructed
upon heroic principles; every thing was
30 ordered that even death, at anv time
likely and at all times probable, was
robbed of half its terrors, and often
times looked upon with complacency,
If not wi h longing.
The windows were not the great
hulking affairs of the present day. but
We're compact to superlative degree,
and while being intended apparently to
let the inside light out rather than to
let any outside light in, they possessed
the added excellence of making the
protruding of heads difficulty, If not
an impossibility. Hence numerous IA
tai accidents that otherwise might have
happened were prevented, and when
LIZ
unfortunate sufferers eyes were yelled
from the distressing scene.
To be sure. the windows did not ad-
NIT of thorough enjoyment of the
passing landscape; but that is not to be
expected in railway travelling; at all
events, and very fortunately. it was
not expected in those happy days. In
lieu of the fleeing interest of the ex-
terror world, however, the railway
traveller had something far more en-
crossing inside. We refer to the mir
ror which inevitably graced either end
of the rail car, and by means OF
which one might contemplate his per-
sonal beauty by the mile, and through
whose. fundamentally Irritation was
rendered easy and unavoidable. Who
can say how many happy marriages
are not directly traceable to these dear
old looking glasses which are so rap
idly passing away? Statisticians. in
ular falling-off in the annual matrimo.
the waning influence of the steam-car
looking-glass.
And the stove. What pleasure ii
was to hear the wood cracking and
swapping. and to see the glowing
cheeks of the honest old stove. as he
sat sedately and without ostentation in
tho center of the car, blushing in rustic
self-consciousness at being the
cynosure of every eye and the
wished-for Mecca of successive
rows of shivering passengers, from
those in the remotest and most
frigid corners of the car even to these
who sit. freezing. but one seat removed.
1t was hot enough. goodness knows. to
the favored passengers whose seats
abutted Immediately upon the stove,
but why there should have been heat
nowhere else must ever remain a mys-
terry. There was no hole or crevice
through which the heat might escape.
and no crevice or hole through which
the outside air might come in as an
adulterant of the caloric; still was the
heat concentrated in one place and the
GOODNESS elsewhere disseminated.
Hence it will be seen that there were
two distinct climates in each car. in
stead of the monotonous temperature
of this day of heaters and kindred
denominations.
Space fails US, or we should like to
speak at length of those dear old hand
brakes, which gave one, when ap-
preaching his station, such jolly stir
ring up and and never let up until he
was landed wide awake on the plat
form. We should like to speak. also,
of the old-fashioned coupling, and the
pleasant sensation which always ac-
companied the starting of the cars
the train moving in detachments. like
the sections of spy glass. one section
at time-and of many other well-re-
membered luxuries. Our endeavor as
simply been to prove that our railroads
are not now what they were once. II
we have succeeded in. doing this, we
are content.-Bostos Transcript.