The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-27
TRAVELLING IN THE WEST.
Conveniences and Fun of Which East
ern Passengers Do Not Know.

are generally for the parlor ard sleeping
car passengers only. a man who is
| going from New York to Philadelphia, or
Ne" Haven or Albany in an ordinary car
! must get OIL at some station to eat or go
without, unless he can make meal from
| the cigars, fruit, candy and novels OF the
! tram boy. 1t is a fairly long ride from
/ New York to Utica, for instance, but no
! provision is made by the railroad company
for feeding the ordinary passenger on the
way except at the stations At Pough-
! keepsic and Albany the train stops long
enough for him TO be charged railroad prices
| for ladlgestlble things, but there is no ar
rongcmcnt by which he can stay in the cars
| and cat
Out west they do this better Almost all
| thu laln lines make provision for feeding
| the passengers on the trains. More dining
| cars are run than on the eastern roads, and,
| though the meals are not 80 Ella bOrate as on
| tie New York Central and Pennsylvania
| limited trains, the price is - cents instead
| OF 81. Tho door of the dining cars that
| the passengers who are not in parlOr cars
| would enter is not locked, and anybody in
| the u ain may go in and eat. This is not 50
pleasant FOR the parlor car passengers, but
| IT rs better for the general travel of the
| road.
In many trains where there is no dining
| car there Is sort of lunch counter rugged
| up in the m)kirg car There is an attend
ant VINO well serve a luncheon in any part
| OF the train. He brings the things on
| tray, and they can lac eatou with much moro
| comfort and leisure on tin" train than III the
| hurry Of short stop and the crowd and
! confusion of railroad lunch room. Tie
| apparatus is kept in the smoking car during
! the trip, and at the end the things are
packed up in big Ghost, the way news
| boy packs up his outfit, and the chest is
| taken away to be restocked and put on
another train. This is convenience that
| the tern roads do not seem to believe in.
! TIE prices are moderate, a little lower than
| those charged at the average eastern rail
| road lunch counter the dishes are clean,
| and a napkin goes with them.
In one way these travelling lunch chests
must be lurators of the people. No knives
| are served with pie. An order for pie,
coffee, and sandwich brought a fresh
| sandwich wrapped up in transparent paper
! and covered with tin foil like a prize
package, thick white china cup of coffee
with little jug of cream and some sugar,
| piece of pie on plate, n spoon and fork.
There was no knife The Western inhabitant
who undertook to eat pie with knife would
| have to furnish it him self, for the tendaut
| brought none. The only ways of eating the
| pie were with a fork or with the fingers
This is better than in the East, where at
| four railroad lunch counters out of five
knife gees with pie, and usually it is vigor-
| ouSlv used.
Don't you give knife with pie?' the at
tendant was asked.
''Oh, no, " he replied you don't need a
| knife to eat pie.
SIS this scheme of the railroad to edu-
| cate the travelersW
81 don't know a. out any scheme All
know is that pie don't need any knife"
"Have you ever reflected on the results
| Of ,ia1 of 70
| public!"
Look here, young man, what're you
asking that fora Do you take me for kid
Knives don't so with pie, and that's all
| there is to it,
There is less expectation of fees among
the walters in western dining cars They
sell 10-cent cigars too, and cheap beer.
Altogether, the railroads seem to be run
more for the accommodation of the average
passenger and less for the people who pay
| extra. That may be because there is more
competition. There are only two roads be-
tween New York and lhiia lelphia, the two
biggest cities i'll the country, while there are
twice that many between Chicago and
Omaha, which has no more people than
Albany and its suburbs. These roads are
run by different companies while one com
pany controls all tine rail routes 0 Albany.
There Is only one road from New York to
New Haven, and every land passenger for
| New England must go over it, while there is
any number of ways of going from Chicago
to st. Paul or Kansas City. No matter
what kind of pooling arrangement these
western roads may he under, they are all
the time competing for the traffic, while in
The east there is hardly any competition.
The New Haven road fixes its rates, the
| Pennsylvania road fixes Its rates, the New
| York Central has for a long time had its
rates established by charter, and they do
not change. During the Chicago conven-
tion there was round trip rate from st.
Paul as low as 81 an Omaha rate of So, and
a Pittsburg rate of So. 1t cost twice as
much to go to Fittsburg on the Pennsyl-
wanna, not half way to Chicago, as it did to
go to Chicago from Pittsburg and return:
that is the rate where there was no compe-
titon was more Than four times the rate
where there was competition.
One good result of these low rates is that
travelling is encouraged Western mon
travel many times rs much as eastern men,
More western men como east than eastern
men go west. A Brooklyn man would
think trip to Chicago something t. be
thought over, and he would not go to Bos-
ton without making some prepal alton.
Chicago business man thinks nothing of
going TO St. Louis, St. Paul. Kansas CITY or
Omaha, and n trip to New York simply
means the eXpeuss and day lost. They do
L
than an old Brooklyn citizen would think
Of trip to WcstChester county on the eIe-
| waited road.
One result of the universal western habit
of travelling is that the bulk of the passen-
| ger traffic is done at night. Every road
| from Omaha runs night express. arriving
| ut Chi ago in morning, while the day
trains are generally slower and more for
local traffic. A western man is accustomed
| to do his days business and then start Off
| while an eastern man looks on tho act of
! travelling as serious undertaking.
and starts off in the morning with a feel
| ing that he will he more tired by evening
than If he had worked in his Office. 4
| western man, on the other hand, finishes
| his business, goes o the station in time for
! supper on the train, smokes his cigar in tho
| smoking compartment of the sleeper chit,
! with his fellow travellers, goes to bed, an
wakes up IN the morning IN time for break
fast at his destination, aud goes at orce TO
! attond to his business thore as If he did that
sort OF thing every day--iudeed, some of
them do
I Tho relations between the trainmen and the
pn 'songcrs are marc pleasant IN the west
| The trG!umeu are not servants, but workmen
and business men. They look forward TO
promotion on the road or 10 striking wealth
in speculation. Among their passengers
every day they ses men who a few years
ago were worse Of than they are. and whom
they kuo" on cqml terms. In the east big
men IN the parlor cars are bowed down TO
BY the trhiulneu, VINO mako things even