Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-29
RAPID RAILROADING.
The Modern Hotel on Wheels, How 1t
is Built, Equipped and Pro-
yisiOned.
The Magnificent Distances of Uncle
Sans Dominion Make the Sleeper
a Necessity.
While Speeding Through the Country
Like the Wind, Sumptuous Meals
Are Enjoyed.

What is one of England's swiftest
trains, the Scotch express, fits like scin-
tillant shuttle between London and Edin +.
burg at a mean speed exceeding fifty miles
an hour, though it sacrifices thirty five
minutes in order that the passengers may
have several opportunities to refresh them
selves and stretch their limbs. The entire
distance covered, 400 miles. is less than
that between New York City and
Buffalo.
In the United States and contiguous ter
ritory we harness hotel on wheels to
every flying express which sets out for any
prolonged journey. Here you may travel
from the Hudson to the Golden Gate with
out pause (unless for an occasional change
of Iocomotives), without quitting your
train and without leaving behind you the
luxury Or comfort of spring beds. baths,
barber shop or rich viands excellently
cooked and served.
The magnificent distances of Uncle
Sans domain made the sleeping car
necessity, and the dining car soon
became the inevitable adjunct of the
sleeper.
Well enough after its fashion was, and
yet is, the wayside lunch counter for the
com paratively slow way train and the &C.
| cupants thereof whose trip does not exceed
few hundred miles. But it was in the
very nature of things that different and
better system must be provided for the
surging, hurrying legions whose chief aim
In travelling was to get over the ground
as rapidly as possible and whose digestive
economy really deserved some more hui
name treatment than could be accorded to
it amid the frantic rush and crush at the
typical railroad restaurant.
Hence came In due order the railroad
car buffet, the hotel car and the dining
car.
GROWTH OF THE SYSTEM.
A continuous tip across the continent,
or even for much shorter distance, would
be impossible unless travellers could be
| in transit with meat and drink as pass
engers are dur ing TRANSATLANTIC voyage
| The time having arrived for solution of
the problem, American inventive talent
was quick to solve it.
Results-on any of the great trunk
| lines to day the traveller, while speeding
onward at the rateof fifty miles an hour
or more, can enjoyas luxurious a repast
| DIS IL SGdUSu LII Ct IL 81 CLASS AOlCl dIlu DIT
quite as low cost, Every region through
| tribute of its richest edible products, to
be leisurely absorbed, and he quaffs his
champagne frappeas the glorious piano.
| prairie, unfolds itelf to his satisfied and
enraptured vision.
There's genuine poetry OF motion" for
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behold it. When royalty goes abroad in
the Old World even its wealth and pres
tige can commeod no such magical
! the American sovereign citizen in whose
pockets jingle or repose a few potential
dollars.
From the benefcent water coolor to the
buffet was an easy and natural graduation.
If railroad could furnish Adams ate to
all its patrons why not also provide other
as were willing to pay for these conven.
snuggeries were fitted up and gradually
improved, which carried cold joints, sar-
dimes, boiled eggs, baked bears, fruit and
various delicacies, besides wines, beers,
mineral waters and cigars. Nowadays
there is compact stove in nearly every
buffet to keep soups, meats, and coffee
warm, but all the cooking is done before
the car starts out, except, of course, the
making of tea and coffee.
Next came the hotel car, a combination
of sleeper and dining car, but the pop
uiarity Of the service soon displaced it for
general travelling purposes, making way
for the dining car, which is a frst.class
restaurant on wheels and is devoted TO no
other function whatever But the hotel
car still has its own special utility and
value. 1t is built so as to provide bed and
board for varying number of persons,
from dozen to a couple OF score, and it is
daily chartered by private parties who
desire to arrange their own itinerary and
to travel with as much privacy and seclu-
sion as if isolated in their own respective
homes.
Tourists and theatrical people contrive
to keep the hotel cars busy the whole year
)und. Railroad presidents and many
millionaires have their private hotel cars
just as the average rich man has his yacht
on sea or lake. You can take yorr own
chief and walters along, or the company
will supply whatever you may desire.
Then you can make arrangements to tie
and you can cast off and clay over" wher-
ever you will
WHAT DOLLAR WILL BUY
Finely printed menus are provided and
for one dollar elaborate meals with costly
viands, the best the markets afford, are
served in fine china and furnished silver.
Children are fed at half rates, while the
lucky train hands get their meals at
tweny hive cents each.
THE CoMMIssARIAT.
He is proverbIally a wise man who
knows how to run hotel, yet for obvious
reasons still higher grade of executive
and administrative capacity is required for
perpetually shifting hotels on wheels.
They are here today and 500 miles away
tomorrow. Nevertheless the watchful eye
of the steward always srrutinizes the help
and the larder. And it is all done with
the precision of clockwork.
On the New York Central railroad and
used exclusively, reaching as far west as
Chicago. On the other large lines in the
United States, Canada and Mexico, the
Pullman cars are operated. The whole
continent is marked off into Omissions, :"
SD that the dining car which makes trip
in one direction today may return tomor-
raw. The headquarters of the Pullman
service for this vicinity is at Waldo ave-
nue., Jersey City, with Mr.. Denbart in
charge, while the Wagner commlssarlat Is
located mile above the Harlem river,
with Harry W. Taylor at the helm. To
describe either is to describe both.
Should you happen to walk about half a
mile north of the Mott Haven depot TO
where the New York Central and the New
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