Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-07


do you suppose was the matter with the
mans brain who arranged cars about q
quarter as long as ours, with doors at the
sides instead of at the ends and with a
double row OF seats back to back running
along the length of the coach down the CEN
ter? This arrangement makes you ride side
ways to the engine. ga
You travel on one ear, as 1t were, and you
look ahead of you out of the windows, which
are, of course, passage ways width sway
from you. That is one style OF ordinary car.
In another the coaches are much broader
than they are long with doors at the sides
and seats arranged from door to door. Here
you ride facing the engine, or back to it, as
your luck goes, but only four persons can
have a chance at a window. The rest sit
and glare at each other, and, if they are
Americans, wonder what they ever came to
Europe for.
Some roads have regular Pullman coaches.
wept all over the dear, shabby red velvet
pivotal chairs. Except Ior table at the
end OF the car covered with guide books, L
might have fancied myself going from Cleve-
land to Boston-if didn't look out of the
windows. 1 don't know whether they
always run cars at break-neck speed, but
that was my experiece. We tore along,
leaving the wind in ragged ribbons behind
us. Nice, steady old England, you knowl
Thought to myself: Give me dear New
York rapid transit for safety and delibera-
tion-principally deliberstion Of course.
THE DIFFERENCE.
There is lot of red tape about second
anu third and frst-class cars They say, as
everyone has heard, that ONLY Americans
and fools ride frst-class; that real English
people take the third; but then my friend
eha,6 ho Anna nr q
any day than real English person. Third
class is often simply horrible. They crowd
the wretched little pens so that people stand,
and only four windows are not enough to
let in any air when there is so much TO let
out. In winter-Nell, just think it up for
yourself. Besides, big numbers are printed
all over the doors-frst, second, third-and
somehow an American may be sensibly eco
nomical without wanting to be labeled so.
Sweethearts ride frst-class. That is be-
cause it isn't crowded. The cars are just
the same, only upholstered better. and in
winter hot bricks are supplied to you! Many
frst-clsss cars are divided off into separate
seats by arms set at equal distances, and ex-
tended up toward the ceiling into a sort of
partition. They are a real convenience tor
sweethearts. When they get into those
coaches they must feei as they do when they
get into hanson and find it has a lamp set
in the back inside, just between their hat
brims,
Ispoke of hot bricks for irst-class coaches.
What do those in the other coaches do in
winter? Freeze, believe. Oh, for solid
comfort give me England Sleepers have
only lately been introduced there. I was
never in one but once. I found it long like
ours. The end was cut off into a separate
compartment with a special entrance. This
tLa 1o1
room, with berths set as ours are-lower and
upper. Part of the room was walled off for
toilet conveniences Really a good arrange
ment, only the porter locked me in.
AN UNPLEASANT FEATURE.
There is a horrible feeling about being
locked into q car. If it should catch fire,
you know, the conductor or porter would be
so dead sure to come and let you Quit be-
ing his duty. Still. you feel never likely to
be dead sure in such case. 1t is small
satisfaction to lock the door on your side,
too. OF course we wouldn't be real patriotic
Americans if we didn't fight about the L
roads, and swear them the worst frauds in
the world; but you just ought to try Lon
don's substitute, the Underground" Even
the sound Of it is choky. The reality is
worse.
The station is on the surface, of course.
You buy your ticket and start down stairs,
and you go down and down and down and
down. Then if you have any sense, you
turn around and come up again, and take a
hanson where you want to 90. II not, you
20 down some more. Smoke and SCOT
ton of steam whistle and yells, hashed into
horrible confusion by countless reverbera-
tions deafen you.
You are stopped by little gateman. you
yield up your ticket you step on long
platform. The air is solid. The ends of
the platform are shrouded In mud-colored
gloom. In front of you is black chasm-
there lies the track. On the other side is
the platform for trains going the other way.
But you don't see it yet. The black chasm
little way from you on either hand
plunges into a surrounding of utter dark
ness. The platform on which you stand is
lighted dimly by shoots cut slantlngly to
the upper air and down which daylight
by the smoke and SCOT around you.
NOT EXACTLY PLEASANT.
Presently there is shrill howl from an
engine, sudden glare of light appears in
the darkness along the track away beyond
you, and then, with snorting and screeching
and choking, the train rushes up. If it is
the Otner sue you get minute view OF
the other platform. II it is on your side
you scramble wildly because everyone else
does, for seat, and get in anywhere with
out reference to whether your ticket says
first or third.
Then the guard flies in mad career down
the platform, slamming the open doors.
You yell for help and insist on getting out.
There is a rush OF blackness by the window,
and you feel you are plunging right into
some of Rider Haggard's worst passages.
There is light in the root of the car set in
an inverted glass bowl, so the smoke goes up
through the roof without spreading in the
car. 1t is the only effort towards making
the situation visible anywhere
The train plunges through utter black,
sooty, swampy darkness, and you wish you
had chosen some other form of death. got
out at the first station without any reference
to where I wanted to go. o, Tor convenient,
safe, comfortable getting around, give me
London! 1 came up out OF terror on to
terra frma, wondering if 1 would have to chew
SCOT the rest of the day, and took a solemn
resolve to 90 to the bad place in the usual
way. but not via the underground railroad
in London CLARA RETIE