The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-30
In AN ENGLI RAILWAY CAR.

1t Is Like an American Horse Gar With
the sides Boarded Up.
Those Americans who go abroad to dis
cover the shortcomings of Europe and to
exaggerate their own satisfaction with
everything American. are always hap
piest when they are describing an Eng
lish, French or German railroad, says
Julian Ralph in Hdrpcr'S Weclc-
IN. They are half wrong, as
bigots usually are; but then, again, they
are half right. The trueSt comparison
and fairest statement OF the facts con-
corning English and American railroads
is that if they had our cars and we had
their roads, both countries would enjoy
railroading in perfection.
In order to present the completest pic
ture to the American reader, let him or
her imagine a summer horse car with the
sides boarded up-one of those horse cars
we New Workers ride upon Third avenue
in, with cross seats facing one another
in pairs. Let him imagine the back
of every alternate seat carried up
to the ceiling. That would divide
the car into three or four boxes.
Then put a window at each end of each
seat, and q door at each end of each pas
sage The windows must be tight and
immovable, but there must be a sliding
window in every door, to hoist up and
down by means of a broad leather strap,
worn black and soft by handling. Now
mark s'Third Class" on the boxes that are
over the wheels Mt either end Of the car,
and paint First Glass" on the boxes
between the wheels in the middle of
the car. Cushion the frst-class seats, and
pad their backs as high as ones head;
then carpet the third-clasS seats and nail
CARPET on their backs, and you have
turned an open horse-car into an English
railway carriage. There Is q narrow
board on each side of the horse Tar for the
conductor to walk upon, and that is there
also on the English car; but the English
railroad car is boarded up at either end,
whereas the American horse-car is
glazed.
Nowl let the American think of all the
comforts and conveniences there are in
| our railroad coaches-the toilet stand, the
| closet, the heating apparatus, the drink
| ing-water cylinder. Not one of these is
in an English railroad car-nOt one. All
those things are at the station. not
n the cars. In the English cars
there is an Intellectual and timid
| light, half concealed above a thick convex
| glass in the roof OF each compartment,
and there is a rack over each seat. This
is the fact whether you ride first class or
third class. In some of the cars there is a
map of the railroad over one bench, and
an advertisement of the railroads hotels
facing it, in each compartment, The map
| strikes me as a most excellent idea.
There is also posted in each compartment
a statement of the number of persons it
is designed to accommodate. ''This
compartment is for ten persons" was al
ways posted in the third-class and second
| class compartments: in the first-class
ones the seats are divided by padded arms
to accommodate three persons each, or
six to the compartment. That is a Euro
pear custom. Even on %shipboard on your
way to Europe you will notice, cast in the
iron door-frame of every room aboard the
vessel, a statement of the number of
| sailors or passengers or stewards or
stokers that may inhabit each apartment.