The age-herald., 1897-11-06
The Invention of the Sleeping
 Car as He Told It.
DID NOT ORIGINATE THE IDEA
First Sleeping Car on the New York Central PulIman's Efforts to Carry Out His Notion
 His Opinions on Matters of Interest.

but afterWard requested that It's pubhca- ton be delayed. The presidential cam paign was then in progress and he want ed to keep in ths background, fearing that memories of the Pullman strike might be used to hurt MT. Mckinley. The story was Bald aside and for one reason and another has mot been pub lished until HOW.
 MT. Pullman d.d not originate the idl,a of the sleeping car. It was suggested ito him, he said, by the introduction of sleeping cars on the New York Central road.
 'erhe company which owned the road," said MT. PdlsnDan, twas restricted to 2 cents a mif= for passenger transporta- tfon. 1t went to the legislature at AL bany for authority to charge for sleep ing car accommodations. l was living then at Albion, doing business as a con- tractor on the Erie Canal. went into the world to earn my living when l was 14. Not long after became of age l found myself with my mother, brothers and sisters on my hands. One of my friends and neighbors in Albion was Ben Field, who was a member of the legislature. He was one of the men who put the first sleeping car into operation. These cars had ceilings against which a tall man's head might have brushed. There was no steamer deck above and no ventilation. When one of them was filled on winter day, with big stove fire at each end, the atmosphere was something dr,adiful"
 Four of these cars MT Fiard and some of his friends converted into sleep!nly cars. The berthS were in three tiers, he lowest being on the floor level. Thds lowest berth cost $1, the second berth was 75 cents and the upper berth wes 50 cents. The sliding scale, for which some people TOW clamor, was the origi- nal scale of charges. These sleeping cars were intended for night use only. The bed clothing was piled up in sec tions in the daytime. MT. Pullman rode on the first of these sleeptng cars which left Buffalo, ard he paid $1 for the priv ilege, though he was only going sixty miles. He wanted the novel experience, and one of the great luxuries of the trip was the opportunity to wash your hands and face in the morning.
 Not long after" said MT. Pullman "I came to Chicago to do si.rne contract work raising buildings to conform to the city'S new grade had the sleep ing car idea ip my head, and turned 1t over a good many tim=Is. Finaly I went Into the business on the Chicago and Alton Toad.f
 The read was a struggling corporation in those days. MT. Pullman remembered seeing the sheriff in the ticket office of the road more than once. waiting to seize the receipts. Two sleeping cers were put on the road, running in opposite directions each night. They were of the primitive type of the first sleeping ca rS. Meantime these first cars had rot been success, and Field and his associates, who had bought them on credit lost possession of them
 While the experiment. was pro grS ssing MT. Pullman got he gold fever and went to Pikeis Peak. He stayed there off and on for three years The Chicago and A1tnrn rpad irtIiA Inc j,o, caf receiver, and this receiver was Nelw Orleans man.
 ''He had am fdea," said MT. Pullman with a smile, that wh,n the war was over grass wouI1 grow between the tracks of Northern railroads. So he took off the night trains on the road al together and for a time my cars were sldetracked. But not aorlg. They were running again after time, and the op- portunlty of buying back two of Fields cans being offered, he and I bought them and owned them In common I had an idea for a much better car than these, but was not mechanic, and I had to get other peophe to carry out my ideas I found that very hard. The builders could always find so many reascns why what I wanted could not be done So the new cars which I built, wthi,,. they were more costly, were not satiSfa ctory
 Finally the Chicago and Alton people gave me the use eff a piece of ground, WHClt tuC OItOil Q-'pOL IDDW SIdnIS, ana employed a builder to carry out my Id :as. My notion was always to uhiize the space above the windows, where the racks were, to store tIhe bidding. To do thts it was necessary to make the car very much higher My builder argued car which was so much higher than their own. told thfm to go ahead and build the car according to my idcas and we would see about the redlroads after
 
 we put the car on siNteen wheels. 80 that 1t would ride more smoothly. I sent east tlrs1n for O decorator who would make the interior of the car harmonious and pleasing to the eye. He remained wi tn me as my decorator for many years
 When the car was finished 1t had cos. ms s1S,000. It attralcted a great deal of at atte1ltion. Many people came to see it and it was much admired. That car by the way, Is in Pullman today, and we use it on occasions.
 When I first put the car in service I told the president of the Lake Shore road that I would have to charge S2 a berth. The Woodruff cars were running in opposition then, and they charged $1.50. He said he could not afford to charge g if some one srse was charging less. I argued that it would be a good advertisement, for people would be anx- dous to see what we had that was worth so much more. AS he could not see the Ndhue VI ny tItOry, proposed that he put one of the cheap cars on the train with the Pullman car. The experiment proved that the plopie an wanted to ride in the $2 car, and if a man got on the train late and had to use the other car he abused the railroad company. The resulr was that in six weeks the chs ap ear was taken off altogsuher''
 MT. Pullman said there were two reas- ons why sleeping car rates should not be- cheapened In the first place, to cheaper all berths would be 'to invite an undesir- able class of patrons. In the second place, to cheapen the upper berth would make a distinction between travellers which they would resent. His claim was that few men woslfd be willing to travel in cheap berths, and that the man who was forced to take am upper berth be- cause all the lower berths were sold would be wounded in his pride. AS to tine charge that the Pullman com- pany was asking too high rate and making too great a profit on its service, MT. Pullman said that if he had not put by a large surplus for the company and invested it judiciously, there would be ,,u 50 cents for 100.