Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-29
RAILWAYS IN INDIA,
Cheap Prices and Primitive Accom-,
mOdations Prevail in That Country,

u
G. W Stevens In the London Mall
The native has taken IN with enthusiasm
the recreation of railway travelling, and the
Indian railways are accordingly admirable
They lack only one point of excellence, and
that is exactly what the European wants
and the native does notf speed The white
man is often in a hurry. the native never;
the Indian train strolls accordingly at a
deoorous twenty miles an hour The sahib
may get impatient, buf 1t is lightning to
people whose national conveyance is a bull
lock cart. The nativh troubles himself
nothing about time tables; he goes to the
station before sunrise and sits down till the
train comes. And the amount of native
traffic is astonishing astonishing even
though 1t costs MIN about farthing a
mile. The station yard and the road be-
yond are a fair by day and doss house by
night; at the opening of the gates the roar
Ing. jabhering platform recalls the break
ing of the crowd when the lord mayor's
show has gone by. The third-class car
rfages are even as crates of fowls; some
stand on the seats, some lie on the floor
You see only a jungle of heads and legs
and arms projected vaguely out of no
where; at night the compartment is a heap
of sack-colered bundles, that might indif-
ferently be men or mai1bags
Your own Indian railway carriage is not
unlike the Indian house. 1t has space and
all indispensables for existing IN a bad
climate, but little of finish or embellish-
mept. In Europe the sleeping car mimics
the drawing room; in India, where often
the very drawing room Is but hating
place in perpetual journey, a sleeping car
is merely car you can very well sleep in
TO 1t, as everywhere in India. you bring
your own bedding and your own servant to
lay it out. You take your meals at stations
by the way; If there is no refreshment
room at the right time and place, you bring
your food with you. The European train is
ilrn az 1 h. I,,yl
servant piles in your canvas bundle of
bedding, your battered dressing case, your
hatbox, your dispatch box, your topi, your
stick, your flask, your tiffin basket, your
overcoat, your cricket bat, your racquet,
your hunting crop, your gun and your dog;
you insert yourself among them and away
you go.
The Indian train may not be sumptuously
capariSoned. but it is workmanlile 10 the
uttermost hatpeg. On the meter-gauge lines
you are a little cranped at night inevita-
bly,; on the broad gauge there is far more
dressing, washing and shaving space than
on any line in Europe or America Against
the hot weather screens of boarding hang
from the carriage roof to midway down the
window; these stall Off some of the dust
While most of the windows are smoked to
cool the glare Ice can be had at impGrtu mt
stations during the hot months Another
vast convenience is the railway waiting
room, in one of which, on the Northwestern
railway, | am at this moment concluding
took cup Of tea; while | drank that
shave and hot bath were preparing in the
waiting room; while took those breakfast
was cooking in the kitchen. 1 went forth
and did what I came here for; now having
an hour to spare, / minister to your mind
at better chair and table and room alto
Sether than, L doubt, you will find in any
hotel in India.
In short, your Briton is not at all the
conservative creature that at home he
would make himself out Put him down
where he has more or less of a clear field,
and he will adapt, and invent, and contrive.
ana relieve the usefuliy ugly with the best
OF them. The small convenience for ex-
ample, of carriages colored according to
their class, now tinidly nibbled at in Eng
land, has long been familiar to india; first
class is white, second, dark green: third.
native color. Only one fault can l think of
in the regulations for Indian travel; there
are no carriages reserved for men. Conse-
quently ladies enter in with their nus
bands. which at bedtime brings embarrass-
ments. Once L have actually had to ask
the station master5to pat on an extra car
riage solely for me to hide my bushes in