The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-16
RAILROADS IN INDIA.
The English Have Covered HindO-
stan with d Network Of Iron.
LOWEST FARES IN THE WORLD.
Secluded Cars for HindoO Ladies-Rates on
CamelS nd Baby Elephants Section
HANDS at Five Cents a Day.

BOMBAY, India, May l, 1SS9.-lSpecial
Correspondence of The HERALD. India
has now 10000 miles OF railroad. 1t is as
far from Calcutta to Bombay as it is from
New York to Denver. and several trunk
lines run across Hindostan from one city to
the other There are branches from these
which go
Up THE HINIALAYA MOUNTAINS
almost to the borders of Tibet, and others
which shoot of to the Khyber Pass at the
entrance to Afghanistan and not great
distance from the new Russian railway.
which has been pushed on past Samarcand.
The day viii come when we can travel from
London to Calcutta by sail, though this pre-
supposes the cutting Of a tunnel under the
English channel. South India has many
long miles of railroads and the whole Of
Hindostan, which is half the size of the
United States, has railroad net covering it.
The construction of these railroads has in
cluded engineering works, fully as grand as
the railroad making Of the United States,
and the keeping of them in order is more
difficult One of the great plaques of Indian
railroad makers is TIC white ant. These
insects eat every dead thing in wood form
above ground. If pile of wooden ties IS
left out over night an attack of ants will
have carried it away by morning and there
is no possible storage of wooden ties. Such
ties as are in the roads are saved from
destruction by the vibration caused by the
running trains,
WHICH sCARES THE ANTS AWAY.
It is the same with telegraph poles and
fences. and the results that the ties of most
of the railroads are made of iron. l have
Travelled about three Thousand miles over
all kinds of railways in India. The tele-
graph poles on many of the lines are hollow
tubes of galvanized iron, about as big
around ds the average mans calf, so made
that they fit into one another and form a
pole about ten feet high. To these poles
the lines are strung and many of the roads
use such poles throughout their entire
length. On other lines the telegraph poles
are 7 iron rails, the same as those on which
the car travels. Two of these rails are
fastened together by bars about foot wide
and then this iron lattice work is set deep
in the ground and the wire strung upon it.
About some Of the stations the fences are
made of such iron rails, and through
hundreds of miles along one Of the Rajah's
railroads in western India ! found fences of
harbed wire with sand stone posts. These
posts were a foot wide and four inches
thick, and they stood about three feet
above the ground. The wires ran through
holes in them, and the railroad men tell me
that they are much cheaper than wood,
am surprised at
THB MAGNIFICENCE OF THE RAILROADS IN
INDIA.
Here at Bombay there is finer railroad
station than any we have III the United
States. 1t cost about one million dollars,
and architecturaty 1t IS the peer Of any
building at Washington. At Calcutta there
are fine depOts and even at the smallest Of
;he towns YOU viii find Well-made, stone
buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens
in which bloom all kinds of tropical flowers.
Nothing about these stations is made of
wood The platforms are Of stone filled
in with cement. and the cars run into the
stations on plane about two feet below
the floor and so that the floor Of the cars is
lust even with that Of the depot. Each
station has its first, second and third class
waiting-room and everything in India goes
by classes. The cars are first, second, third
and fourth-class and they are all on the
English plan. They are about twO-thirds
the length of our cars and tritle wider.
They are not so heavy as the American
passenger coach and they look more like
wide, long boxes than anything else. Each
of these cars is divided into compartments.
IN THE FIRST AND sECoND-CLAss
there are only two compartments to the
car. and the chief difference in these two
classes is in the number allowed in the com
partment. If you will imagine a little
room about ten feet long by five feet wide,
with a roof seven feet high, in the center of
which there is a glass globe for light, you
may have some idea of the Indian tirst-class
car. You must, however, put two long,
Ieather-covered. cushioned benches along
each side of this room and at the end of
these have doors with glass windows in
them, opening inward. Over the cushioned
backs of the benches there are windows
which are let up and down like those of the
American street car and which are of the
same size. The car has none of the finish
of the American Pullman, and though you
are expected to sleep within it there are no
signs of bedding or curtains. At the back
of it there is a LABORATORY without towels,
soap or brushes, and there is barely room
enough for you to turn around in 1t when
YOU are washing. The second class cars
are much the same and there may be one
second-class car and one first On the same
coach.
But HOW ABOUT THE BEDDING!
Every man carries his own bedding with
him in India and these Indian cars give
YOU nothing else but d lounge on which to
spread a cotton comforter, a shawl or a rug.
You carry your own pillows and the bed
ding of half a dozen passengers would fill a
car. Each traveller of the first and second
class brings the of his baggage into the
train with him and there is often as much
as the contents of an American baggage car
in one of these compartments. No one
undresses, but all lie down with their
clothes on, pull their shawls over them and
sleep the best they can. There are no
porters to wake you up at the proper time
and YOUR boots remain unblacked Women
travelling alone universally go into com
Uartments reserved for women, and men
travelling with their wives have often
trouble in keeping together.
This luggage being brought into the cars
and the trouble about getting and holding
seats leads to the necessity, which exists in
India, of
TRAVELLING WITH SERVANT.
All English and American travellers carry
one or more servants along with them, and
in figuring up YOUR railroad fares you must
add to the fare of the class by which you
travel a third-class fare for your native
servant. This servant speaks English. He
manages your baggage, sees to the hiring
and paving of the cabs to and from the
stations and the hotels, and waits upon you
at the hotels. In many of the hotels you
get nothing to eat if you have no servant.
Your room is not made u. your boots are
not blacked, there is no bell in the room,
and YOU get no attendance whatever. II
YOU have a servant he sleeps on the floor
outside your door and fights for the best of
everything for you. He wants but little
WAGES. and, on the whole, it is cheaper for
Won TO take him with you than to get
along without him. l have tried both ways
-, +oc+ifr To tho foot 70