The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-23

Indications of the New South,-AtJan-
ts's Supremacy and Her One Blemish-
Peculiar Situation as Regards the Union
Station.-Some Personal Experiences.
We left Portland on Saturday. October
s tn, en- route for the great Cotton Stat
International Exposition at Atlanta We
took the steamer Manhattan for New
York and of course sailed out of the har-
Dor just at dusk. The steamer Portland
had gone out just ahead of u.s. We over
hauled and passed the big handsome side
wheeler long before we were out of sight
of Portland light. Do Portland people
generally realize that our New York
steamers are as big and swift and sea-
worthy as the average liner from New
York and Boston to the West Indies? 1t
is delightful trip to New York on the
Manhattan, If the sea is as smooth as
we had it, and especially if one knows
Captain Bragg and can listen to his fasoi-
mating stories of the many experiences of
his long service.
We reached New York early Sunday
evening and Monday forenoon were busy
in determining just how we should get
to Atlanta. There are several routes all
having the same reduced rates. You can
go by the Seaboard Air Line which takes
you through Richmond and Raleigh, or
the Piedmont Air Line, which goes
straight down along the eastern foothills
| (Piedmont) of the Alleghanies or you
can go through Cincinnati and down
around that way. 1t is ga for ten-day
ticket, 25 for twenty day ticket and
some thirty odd dollars for an unlimited
ticket. This includes simply the fare
down and back. 1t costs S. each way for
a birth in the sleeper and to this must
be added the cost of food which, Of
course varies with the inclination. AL
together if one gets twenty-day ticket
| from New York to Atlanta it will cost at
least S46 for transportation dowh and
| back.
All the routes have the same objection
that you must return the same way and
that you cannot stop off any where. You
are practically put into a tunnel at New
York and shot straight to Atlanta and
/
this respect the railroad facilities for
this Exposition are much inferior to
those for the Worlds Fair at Chicago. But
they are not inferior to any in the whole
world as regards the transportation, per
Sc. We decided upon what seemed to us
the most direct and quickest route. We
took this "Vestibule Limited" of the
Piedmont Air Line that leaves New York
at a. 30 p. H., and goes straight to At
lanta over the Pennsylvania and Southern
railroads, covering the 876 miles in just
90 hours We reached Washington at
i 1925 p. m, having covered the 1928 miles
from New York in six hours, an average
of SO miles an hour. AT different places
on the way we had reached the great
speed of mile minute
At Washington, after stop of only Is
minutes. we were transferred to the
Southern Railroad. 1t was magifcent
gestibule train of seven Pullman cars,
through the night, toward Dixie-land
quite as swiftly and smoothly as the great
Pennsylvania road HAD conveyed us. We
woke up Tuesday morning in North Caro-
lima.
Now, we hsd somehow got the ides
that it is warm down South and hat
brought the thinnest of fannels and in
dulged in visions of hot sunshine and re-
freshing shades and ice cream, etc. on tn,
exposition grounds. One of us, (nt
matter which) had even packed stray
hat-with much care and labor.
The train was at standpoint still
when we turned out Tuesday morning
at about seven O'Clock. Our car was mex
to the tender. On opening the door
blast of cold air came in and, though
hard to believe at first that bright
slippery stuff on the steps and end of tn
car was hard, cold ice and it was no
there when we left Washington. Th
steam from the engine had frozen on tn
car.
1t was bright clear morning and th
whole country was glowing mass OF tn
most vivid autumn foliage. What few
eyerereens were in sight were of a deoid
edly brighter green than those of TIN
|
maple were no brighter than the color o
the muddy roads and the bare patches ant
gulies in the weedy pastures and corn
| fields. 1t had rained in the night and thu
dampness had frightened the redness O
the red earth, till it was almost scarlet
Tn the sunshine and clear cold air it wa
most brilliant landscape, suggestive O
Names autumn colors, but far brighte
and the occasional presence of the pur
white hollis of unharvested cotton crop
made the fancy that early SHOWS ha,
come in an cratic way, a not altogethe
e inappropriate one. Such was our frs
glimpse of the land of cotton.
AS we hurried on toward northern
! Georgia the heavy white frost continue
. for long time on the weeds and bushes
especially in the low, shaded places Thi
Piedmont Cor foothill) country is YER
barren in appearance. 1t is like GU
New England uplands, but with n
streams or rocks OF grassy hayfields an
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