Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-23
IN CAR AND CORRIDOR
Business Bows to Bsseball-Speedy Trains
and Big Yarns-An Old-Time Express
The Evolution of the Modern Sleeper
Odd Tales of Railroad Travel by the

Odd Tales of Railroad Travel by the
Topical TaIker.
| ABOUT 8 o'clock yesterday afternoon it
seemed to strike some hundreds of merchants
lawyers bankers, brokers and other substan-
tial citizens downtown simultaneously that
business was very dull anyhow, and that they
might just as well get little fresh air and sun
shine and that sort OF thing. Singularly
enough all of their feet turned into the same
path, which sooner or later brought them to
Exposition Park. Balmy air and baseball
chime in together, and the augury OF yesterday
| seems to promise return OF the vOciferous
times when Fifth avenue was we'll nigh blocked
every afternoon from till 8 with mob OF
cheering cranks who thrsted for the draught
| of Joy or woe which the bulletin boards held for
them.
| The welcome the baseball heroes received In
the streets yesterday was unmstskably warm.
The enthusiastic newsy yelled: "Dere dey
| come bats Miller-hOoray!" and the old
favorites were pelted with pet names from all
sides. All the errand boys roads led to the
ball grounds yesterday, and even the District
Messenger Mercury hurried his footsteps as he
took short cut to the East End by way of AL
legheny.
Fast Flyers and Tall Stories.
The other day in Chicago some railroad men
! got talking to me of fast trains. They have
good many expresses out West that do tall
running, in spite of the prevalent idea here in
the East that our great trunk roads have mo-
| nopoly of speed, comfort and safety in train
service. President Harrison has found
out already what wonderful improve
ments have been made in the South
western railroads, for 1 notice that he
alluded to them in his speech at Little Rock the
other day. Well, the Chicago men, to whom L
have alluded, told me some remarkable tales of
Cannon Ball." Lightning and other flyers.
| The Western railroader does not stop at any
thing when he is cracking up his own line, and
after half dozen stories had been told the
Lake Shore man said: THE Limited on our
road is such flyer that it takes two men to see
her 90 Dy-one to say: Here she comesP and
tother to say: There she goesr "
| That's not a Circumstance to what No. 2l,
| my roads wonder, did the other day. spoke up
the 'Miami's" champions; 'she left Columbus
very late, and ran so fast that though she
| reached Cincinnati on time her shadow was so
| minute late"
"pm not going to try to beat that sto r said
| another passenger agent, shut Pll bet very few
of you fellows ever had an experience like
| mine soon after the war, when l was 4 con
| ductor on a sleeper between Little Rock and
| Memphis. We used to make the run in IL
| hours-ho~'s that for 30 miles? 1t was swamps
most of the way and we were tickled to death
if we got through without jumping the track
more than once or twice. You see the right Of
way was all that was cleared through the cane
brake, and half the time in the spring the
| Mississippi got out and foated the ties. / re-
member that we usually went just fast enough,
| say eight or ten miles an hour, to suck the
| mosquitoes into my car, which was always the
| rear one. Talk about the air being full of
mosquitoes, down there you were lucky to find
| a little air amorg the mosquitoes. I've heard
ladies beg the gentlemen to smoke in the car,
for in those days, as now, an Arkansas cigar was
more than mosquito could stand?'
The Progress in PulImans.
YoU would think it hardly possible to i'm
| prove upon the latest sleeping cars turned out
| by the Pullman shops so wonderfully complete
are they in every detail that counts for COM
| fort or safety. but Mr.. Pullman told friend of
mine the other day that while he was satisfied
with the progress he had made in the construc-
| tion of his cars he hoped to keep on adding
new features as fast as he had in the last ten
years. How great the progress has been In the
last decade in sleeping car construction very
few of US stop to think. The vestibule device
and the substit ution of steel for cast iron and
wood in the frame OF the car are the two most
important improvements dating since 1880 but
WlInln Lne cars nardly less material ADVANCE
has been made in the provision of space-saviug
and comfort-adding contrivances The uphol-
stering and cabinet work of the cars has kept
pace with the more substantial progress, and
one cannot but wonder that good taste should
so generally prevail in the choice of colors and
materials in hangngs and upholstering, and in
the carving, molding and combination of
woods. Steadily too the standard of taste in
the Pullman works seems to rise.
The First Sleeper.
TALKING of the evolution of the sleeping car
Mr.. NJ. Z. Bristol, who as an officer Of the West
ern Union has travelled seldom less than &C. 900
miles year on the cars for the last 25 years.
told me the other day that he remembered
what a sensation created by Mr.. Pullman's
first sleeping car. 1t was taken all around the
country in circus style, and Mr.. Bristol, with
thousands of Others went to see it when 1t
reached Cincinnati and wondered at its revela
tion of comfort and convenience till then un-
known in railroad travel. That was about the
close of the war. or q little later, and for ten
years after that the sleeping car did not con
tain the often cursed but very necessary upper
berth. No plan for stowlng away the upper
berth by day was discovered till about 1875, so
you can see of how very recent creation after
ali is the sleeping car of our day. have been
told but have forgotten the exact number Of
patents covering the composition of tine latest
Pullman car but it is good way up in the
hundreds, and hardly month passes but
something new for use In the makeup of the
sleeper is brought under the patent office pro
lection.
Cars to Be Pitied.
THOUGH the West and South have some
trains of Pullman cars that stand comparison
with anything in the East. it seems to pc fact
that Pullman car usually begins life on one
of the Eastern trunk lines, thence goes West or
South to the trunk lines there, and in the
course of time finds its way to branch lines in
the least populous parts of the Southwest. In
some sections of the South and West the only
hope of a release from duty that comes to the
sleeping car is a disastrous wreck. There is
something almost sad in the thought that the
car which, in its youth commanded columns of
judicious praise in the Eastern press should
come at last to contumely and tobacco juice ad
lib on the Yahoo and Grand Pacific. But the
fashion of building solid vestibule trains now
obtaining vogue throughout the land is likely
to work great revolution in the Pullman,
Wagner and other car systems Every great
railroad in the land will soon have some dis
tinetlve and particular express train of vesti-
bule, sleeping, dining and other cars and al
ready there are several such trains in the West
that challenge comparison with the Pennsylva-
mia limited or the B. & O.'s famous Royal Blue
line. l saw last week one of these trains, the
night express of the Chicago Milwaukee and
ST. Paul. which they call the st. Paul limited,
believe. In one particular think this train
excels its rivals. namely, in the electric berth
lamps with which it is fitted, and which en-.
able the traveller to read, if he cannot sleep, |
without disturbing his voyage companions On |
inquiry at the Pennsylvania office here I find |
that on the limited you can have lamp con-
I.