The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-03-11
GEORGE NJ. PULLMAN.
THE STORY OF THE MODERN PAL
ACE CAR RETOLO.

Road-Besinning of the Palace Car
building Of the "Pioneer''-Railroad
Men Laugh-Cutting Platforms.
George NJ. Pullman was born in Brocton, |
Chautauqua county, and his birth year 1881. !
He lived in Brocton fourteen years and then |
moved 20 Albion where he also resided four |
teen years At Albion he became acquainted !
with Senator Ben Field, member of the !
state senate in 1876. Mr.. Field was inter |
ested in legislation concerning sleeping car
fares, and the Woodruff Sleeping Car COM
pany, in acknowled gment of his interest in
their behalf, had given him the right TO run
their sleepers on a couple of western roads.
While Mr.. Pullman was in Chicago in 1893
he was called upon by Senator Field with
request for several loans, and out of these ac-
Communications 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 a 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
Mr. Pullman and told him that he had an OPP
portunity {, buy back the privileges on the
other roads, and that he would like to sell his
half interest in the copartnership line to Mr..
Pullman. A bargain struck, and MIR.
Pullman paid his partner &, 500. This was at
the opening of the war, when the night trains
on the Alton road had been taken off by
the superintendent, who was a sympathlzer
with the south, and VINO 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. 1t is a singular
illustration Of Mr.. 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 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 csmmonest
kind of sleeping cars at slight expense. FIFTY
cents was charged for a BERTH and the first
night four berths were sold. About this
time the Pixies peak fever set in, and Mr..
Pullman gravitated west and spent two or
three years at Pixies peak. He returned IN
1864 and again took up his sleeping car pro
ject.
BEGINNING OF THE PALACE CAR.
In 1864 Mr.. Pullman, who had been giving
the sleeping car business close attention, and
who had become deeply interested i'll the
thought that there was wide field for in
ventive gem IS in that direction, met master
car builder of the Alton railroad, who was
an old friend, and paid him 500 month to
take in charge the construction of 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
he wanted. The great question with him
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. Mr.. Pullman determined thaI
the new car should be the handsomest ever
made. Heretofore a sleeping car had cost
not more than s., 900 or $4, 800. Looking the
matter over and wondering how he could ar
range two berths that would be roomy, COM
Portable 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.
Mr.. Pullman's idea was to have a car that
could be run on long trips either as 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 daytime" The car builder re-
piled at once that the car was not high enough
and that the space would he too small This
was before cars were built with raised decks
or roofs. ''Then," said Mr.. Pullman, ''why
not raise the carp The outcome of this con
versation was a direction that plans should
be drawn for car as wide and as high as
would be necessary to get in two berths, in
Guiding one hinged to the upper side of the
car The plan was accurately drawn for q
;ar one foot wider and two and One-haf feet
higher than any car that had heretofore beer
built in this country.
RAILROAD MEN LAUGH.
OF course railroad men who heard of Mr.
Pullman's plans smiled, and said that if Mr.
Pullman was railroad man he would know
better than to pursue his impracticable propo
siticns: that he he would only meet disaster
and lose all that he had But his conviction
was strong and clear, and with that plucl
and audacity which have always charac
kerized his clear sighted business policy, h
went ahead and the car was built. The mex
question was the decoration of it. Mr. Pull
man determined that it should be the hand
somest car in all respects that ever had beer
made in the country. He came on to New
York and there happened to meet the artis
who had just decorated the house of Samue
]. 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 cos
the extraordinary sum of $4,000, a larg,
price even now for a sleeping car It was
wonder to everybody. 1t was just as Mr.
Pullman had expected. The beauty of tn,
finish and the marvellous innovation he hat
made were advertised far and near by tn
newspapers and by railroad men, and sOm
Of the latter began to believe that the idea
Of the inventor after all were practicable
The Pioneer was in process of building for
whole year. The assassination of Lincoln oc
curing at this time, it was suggested tina
the Pioneer be used in the funeral train, an
it was run from Springfield to Chicago o.
The Alton road AS had been predicted whe
the ear was built, it was too wide to run o
the roads as then constructed. 1t was neces
Sary for the Alton road to send along its lin
and cut Off the platforms that projected, an
TO make numerous changes at stations so this
the car, with its width of an additional foo
could pass.
Thus the railroads had to make way for IL
improvements that the convenience of I'll
travelling public demanded. Everywhel
the beauty OF the Pioneer was talked of, an
it was not strange that soon after, when Gel
Grant came home the use of the car WI
asked to convey the great hero from Detro
TO Galena. The Michigan Central railros