Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-07
GEORGE M. PULLMAN.
THE STORY OF THE MODERN PAE-
 ACE GAR RETOID.

First Experiments Made on the Alton
 Road-Besinning of the Palace Car.
 Building of tho "Pioneer''-Railroad
 Men Laugh-Cutting Platforms.
 George M. Pullman was born in Brocton, Chautauqua county, and his birth year 1881. He lived in Brocton fourteen years and then moved to Albion, where he also resided four teen years. At Albion he became acquainted with Senator Ben Field, member of the state senate in 1S54-6. MT. Field was inter- ested in legislation concerning sleeping car fares, and the Woodruff Sleeping Car com pany, in acknowledgement of his interest in their behalf, had given him the right to run their sleepers on couple of western roads
 While MT. Pullman was in Chicago in 1859 he was called upon by Senator Field with Q request for several loans, and out of these ac- commodations an arrangement grew between them to run sleeping cars on the Alton road, Pullman to pay the senator, who had secured the right to run the cars, half of the prospec- tive earnings. Matters went on in this way for short time, and meanwhile Field, who had no business tact, lost his sleeping car ser vice on the other two western roads which had been given him. One day he came to Mir. Pullman and told him that he had an op- portunity to buy back the privileges on the other roads, and that he would like to sell his half interest in the copartnership line to MT. Pullman. A bargain was struck, and MT. Pullman paid his partner S2, 500. This was at the opening of the war, when the night trains on the Alton road had been taken of by the superintendent, who was a sympathizer with the south, and who thought that before the war was over grass would grow in the streets of the north. The outlook for the AL ton road was very dubious. It is a singular illustration of Mir. Pullman's good fortune that he had hardly concluded the purchase of his partners half interest before business be- came so good that the night trains were started again and the sleeping car business began at once to make returns. These sleep ing cars on the Alton road, with which MT. Pullman's first experiments were tried, were simply two ordinary passenger coaches, which he had changed into the commonest kind of sleeping cars at slight expense. Fifty cents was charged for Q berth, and the first night, four berths were sold. About this time the Pike's peak fever set in, and Mir. Pullman gravitated west and spent two or three years at Pike's peak. He returned in 1864 and again took up his sleeping car pro ject
 BEGINNING OF THE PALACE CAR
 In 1864 Mir. Pullman, who had been giving the sleeping car business close attention, and who had become deeply interested in the thought that there was wide field for in- ventive genius in that direction, met master car builder of the Alton railroad, who was an old friend, and paid him S1O0 month to take in charge the construction of a model car. He obtained the privilege of using shed of the Alton railroad in its yard at Chi cago, and told the builder what sort of a car la ,k1I TL1 |. was how to have an upper and lower berth that would be comfortable They were at that time the merest makeshifts to afford nights rest. MT. Pullman determined that the new car should be the handsomest ever made. Heretofore sleeping car had cost not more than S4 900 or s4 800. Looking the matter over and wondering how he could ar range two berths that would be roomy, com fortable and convenient, he was perplexed as to the disposition of the mattresses. At that time all the mattresses were put away in one section during the daytime. In fact the early sleeping cars were simply used for night cars and not run in the daytime.
 MT. Pullmans idea was to have car that could be run on long trips either as a day or a night car. With this object in view he started to build the "Pioneer." He found the mattresses could not be put on the floor because of the dust and discomfort. There was no place between the windows, and he finally said to his car builder, "Why not hinge an upper berth near the roof and put the mattresses in it when the berth is closed during the daytimeT' The car builder re- piled at once that the car was not high enough and that the space would be too small This was before cars were built with raised ''decksn or roofs ''Then," said Mir. Pullman, sswhy not raise the cars" The outcome of this con- versation was direction that plans should be drawn for car as wide and as high as would be necessary to get in two berths, in- cluding one hinged to the upper side of the car. The plan was accurately drawn for a car one foot wider and two and one-half feet higher than any car that had heretofore been built in this country.
 RAILROAD MEN LAUGH.
 Of course railroad men who heard of MT. Pullman's plans smiled, and said that if MT. Pullman was railroad man he would know better than to pursue his impracticable propo- sitions; that he he would only meet disaster and lose all that he had. But his conviction was strong and clear, and with that pluck and audacity which have always charac- terized his clear sighted business policy, he went ahead and the car was built. The next question was the decoration of it. Mir. Pull man determined that it should be the hand somest car in all respects that ever had been made in the country. He came on to New York and there happened to meet the artist who had just decorated the house of Samuel J. Tilden. He at once closed with this artist, took him west and set him at work decorating the car.
 When the Pioneer was finished it had cost the extraordinary sum of SIS, 900, a large price even now for sleeping car. It was Q wonder to everybody. It was just as Mir. Pullman had expected. The beauty of the finish and the marvellous innovation he had made were advertised far and near by the newspapers and by railroad men, and some of the latter began to believe that the ideas of the inventor after all were practicable. The Pioneer was in process of building for a whole year. The assassination of Lincoln oc- curing at this time, it was suggested that the Pioneer be used in the funeral train, and it was run from Springfield to Chicago on the Alton road. As had been predicted when the car was built, it was too wide to run on the roads as then constructed. It was neces- sary for the Alton road to send along it's line and cut off the platforms that projected, and to make numerous changes at stations so that the car, with its width of an additional foot, could pass.
 Thus the railroads had to make way for the improvements that the convenience of the travelling public demanded. Everywhere the beauty of the Pioneer was talked of, and it was not strange that soon after, when Gen.
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