Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-08-15

Lunch Chests-A Good Resu lt Of Low
Rates-Travel TN the Night Time-Th<
Train Men.
In one respect the western railroads GO
ahead Of the eastern railroads. and that
Is In feeding their passengers. Hardly a
road in the east has dining car on its
local trains. The limited and through
express trains have dining cars, but they
are generally for the parlor and sleeping
car passengers only. A man who is going
from New York to Philadelphia, or New
Haven. or Albany in an ordinary car must
get off at some station to eat or go with
out, unless he can make meal from the
cigars, fruit, candy and novels of the
train boy.
Out west they do this better. Almost
/ all the main lines make provision for feed
ing the Passengers on the trains. More
! dining cars are run than on the eastern
roads, and, though the meals are not 80
! elaborate as on the New York Central and
| Pennsylvania limited trains. the price is
seventy five cents instead of 81. Tho
door of the dining cars that the passengers
! who arc not in parlor cars would enter is
not locked. and anybody in the train may
! 60 in and eat. This Is not so pleasant for
the parlor car passengers, but it Is 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 smoking eau. There Is an attend
ant who will serve luncheon In any part
of the train. He brings the things on 9
tray, and they can be eaten with much
more comfort and leisure on the train
than in the hurry Of short stop and the
crowd and confusion Of q railroad lunch
room. The apparatus is kept in the
smoking car during the trip, and at the
end the things ere packed up In big
chest, the way newsboy packs up his
outfit and the chest is taken away to DO
restocked and put on another train. This
is convenience that the eastern roads do
not seem to believe In. The prices are
moderate. q little lower than those charged
at the average eastern railroad lunch
counter; the dishes are clean, and q nap
kin goes with them.
In one way those travelling lunch chests
must be educators of the people. No
knives are served with pie. An order for
pie, coffee and a sandwich brought fresh
sandwich wrapped up in transparent paper
and covered with tin foil like prize pack
age, a thick, white china cup of coffee
with little Jug of cream and some sugar,
a piece Of pie on q plate, spoon and
fork. There was no knife. The western
inhabitant who undertook to eat pie with
knife would have to furnish it himself,
for the attendant brought none The
only ways Of eating the pie were with
fork or with the fingers. This is better
than in the east, where at four railroad
lunch counters out of five knife goes
with pie, and usually 1t Is vigorously
used.
Don't you give knife with pie?' the
attendant was asked.
"Oh, no." he replied. "You don't need
knife to eat pie"
is this scheme Of the railroad to edu-
cate the travelers?
II don't know about any scheme. All
know is that pie don't need any knife"
"Havo you ever reflected ON the results
Of this denial Of knives to the pie eating
publicf"
Look here, young man. what're you
asking that fort Do you take me for a
kid? Knives don't go with pie. and that's
all there is to it."
There IS less expectation of fees among
tho walters in western dining cars. They
sell ten cent cigars, too, and cheap beer.
Altogether, the railroads seem to be run
more for the accommodation of the aver
age passenger and less for the people who
pay extra. That may be because there is
more competition
One good result of these low rates IS
that travelling is encouraged. Western
men travel many limos as much as east
ern men. More western men come east
than eastern men so west. Brooklyn
man would think d trip to Chicago some
thing to be thought over, and he would
not go to Boston without making some
preparation. A Chicago business mar
thinks nothing Of going to St. Louis. St.
Paul. Kansas City OF Omaha. and trip
to New York simply means the expense
and day lost They do not think any
more Of a trip to St. Paul than an old
Brooklyn citizen would think of @ trip to
Westchester county On the elevated road
Ono result of the universal western
habit Of travelling is that tho bulk Ct tho
passenger traffic is done at night. Every
road from Omaha runs O night express,
arriving at Chicago IL the morning. while
the day trains are generally slower and
more for locsl traffic. A western man Is
accustomed to do his days business and
then stSrt off, while an eastern rlan looks
on the act Of travelling as serious under
taking, and starts off in the morning with
a feeling that he will be more tired by
evening than If he had worked IN his
Office. A western man, on the other
hand, finishes his business, goes to the
station In time for supper on the train,
smokes his cigar in the smoking conpart-
ment Of the sleeper, chats with his fellow
travellers, goes to boa and wakes up In
the morning IN time for breakfast ut his
destination, and goes at once to attend to
his business there as If he did that sort of
thing every day-iudeed, some of them
do.
The relations between the trainnen
and the passengers are moro pleasant IN
the west. The trainInen are not ser
wants, but wOrkmen and business men.
They look forward to promotion on the
road on to striking wealth II speculation
Among their passengers every Gay they
see men who few years ago were worse
off than they are. aud whom they know
on equal terms. In the east big men IN
the parlor cara are bowed down to by the
trsinI1en. who make things even with
themselves by ordering around the second
class passengers In the smoking car.
Western conductors are more civil and
less subservient, though the sleeping car
porter is the same everywhere
The conductors gre less stringent In en-
forcing the rules of the railroad company.
Occasionally they VIII let passenger
stop over on limited ticket. and 1t La
common for them to accept tickets the
time of which has expired They allow
one man to travel on another mans