The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-09-04
NAMES FOR CARS.
Their Choice q Task That Worries
Railroad Omcisls.

Railroad officials.
There is a young man in one of the
offices of each of the great sleeping car
companies who is engaged every day,
except Sunday, of course, in bending
over an atlas searching for suitable names
for the sleeping, dining, and parlor
coaches which are turned out by the
company. 1t is no small matter when
you come to understand that every name
must signify something, and that there
are already on the road many hundreds
of such coaches and new ones being
turned out at the rate OF two or three
hundred year. When the first sleepers
were built the owners took the alphabet,
lettering the first one "A" and SO on
until the alphabet run out. Then com.
menced the search for names. The first
sleepers to be named were those run on
the Pennsylvania limited between New
York and Chicago. They were named
for the various nations, America being
the first one chosen. The original sleep.
ers are Chose first named) America, Eng.
land, France, Russia, Scotland, Germany,
and SO on.
The next names were taken from the
various towns through which the road
runs. II the road was in Ohio, for ex-
ample, the sleepers on such roads were
named for some of the principal towns
and cities in that State. This plan, how
ever. was soon deemed unad visable. as il
sometimes becomes necessary to transfer
the sleepers to roads in other States.
Then came the plan of naming the
coaches after the sections of the country.
Those which run on the roads of the
West were given Indian names.
AS far as possible it is now the rule for
the names of the palace coaches to bear
some relation to the nature Of the busi-
ness in the section where sleepers run.
For instance, on the roads running out
Of Washington there are such names on
the sleepers as Senator, Diplomatic,
Congress, etc.
On few lines which traverse noted
battlefields some of the sleepers are
named in honor of famous generals.
The books of one of the principal COM
panies show that Achilles, Ajax, and
Ulysses have been honored ON wheels.
The present is an age of colleges.
These institutions have associated with
their curriculum boating, football, and
other athletic exercises. This same COM
pany concluded for awhile to embalm
the names of the leading literary insti-
tutions by painting their names on their
sleeping cars. This was the most popu-
lar idea which the company had adopted.
But there is limit to noted schools in
America, just as there is limit to the
alphabet, and it was soon discovered that
there were not enough colleges to 90
round, or, which was the same thing,
there were too many sleeping cars.
Then commenced the hunt on the atlas
for names. The system of naming is
now followed in this manner: A young
man is employed to make out an alpha
betical list from the atlas. Having Sc
lected his name, he goes to the root of it,
and ascertains its origin and significance.
When list is prepared it is passed to
the vice president of the company, who
adopts or rejects.
Sometimes suggestions are sent in by
outsiders. They are filed away, and il
any Of the names thus suggested are
adopted in the course of construction
they find their way to the gate Of the
travelling public.
Dining cars are named, as far as the
names signify, for rivers, lakes, and bays.
In the West for Indian chiefs. Parlor
cars are nearly always feminine in no.
menclature. The NEUROLOGICAL deities
on the feminine side have been literally
honored. The names Of some of the
more notable female characters in history
and fiction have been transferred to these
palace cars of the rail.
The instruction to the young man
whose business it is to keep up the list is
to get short names where they have any
significance, keeping in mind at the same
time those which are most euphoneous.
This is busy age. 1t not only costs
less to paint short name, but you do
not want to stop to read or write such
word as Assiniboine when there are SO
many shorter ones, and ones which are
so much smoother to speak and which
mean more.
The naming Of these cars is no small
job, and the man who has triplets to
christen is not half so much worried
about names as the vice president of
sleeping car ompany.-Chicago Tribune.