The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-28
RAILROAD TRAVEL IN INDIA.

RAILROAD TRAVEL IN INDIA.
 Some of the Needful-How the Natives
 Get Cheap Transportation.
 For an Indian railroad run of any
 length, you must make preparations of
 kind which would never be thought of
 at home. First of all you must have l engaged a good man-servant a "boy," {"
 on whom you will vastly depend for
 comfort. You cannot do without him
 at hotel, dawk- bungalow, or even in
 private houses; and although he may
 cheat you little, he will if reasonably
 honest, limit the peculations of others.
 You must have good tiffin basket,
 which the boy will keep filled with
 potted meat, biscuits, soda water and
 so forth, with doubtless the machinery
 to brew tea--for you must not trust
 unboiled water or milk in the land
 Moreover, although some of the way
 side stations have excellent restaurants l these are not always at hand when the 1 traveller needs them most
 You must carry your own light bed
 ding with you two silk or cotton rezais 1 we'll wadded, and a pillow. The guide-
 books justly counsel that there should ! be two rezais. To these should Joe added pillowcase, calico sheets and blan-
 ket rough waterproof cover. in
 which to wrap the bedding, must not
 be omitted, or the first time the bed ding is carried any distance by a coolie
 or packed on a pony it may be very
 much soiled.
 ,ob rf covering as is here indicated traveller may at any time have to spend night
 shivering in the cold, which would pro-
 bably result in an attack of ague.
 To his boy, his tifTin basket and his bedding, the tourist will add a copy of the Indian A. B. c. Guide" or the Indian Bradshaw and for the rest he may safely trust the companies. They do all they can for the well-being of travelers-especially those of the first class. It may or may not wound the republican spirit of an American to note how great is the attention shown to the white jane walah; but certainly this universal respect for the white face will help to make him con- fortabe. To quote the guide books:-
 Every first and second class com partment is provided with a lava tory, and the seats, which are unusu- ally deep, are so arranged as to form couches at night. There are refresh ment rooms at frequent intervals, and some of them are very well managed and supplied. The station masters are particularly civil and obliging, and, as rule are most useful to travellers in providing ponies, conveyances or ac- commodation at out t-of- the-way sta tions if notice be given beforehand. They. will also receive letters addressed to their care; this often a convenience to travellers.
 Of course 1t must be in what is called the "cold weather" that you traverse the varied lengths and breadths of Hin dustan. From the middle of November to the middle of March is the ideal pe- riod. Yet even then, as always, the sun must be respected from a. m. until 4 p. n., and many burning hot hour at best will be passed in the railway carriage. The rolling stock has been constructed with regard to this necessi ty The first-class compartments have double roof to soften the fierce inn pact of monday sunshine, and the win dows are duplicated, with pale purple or green glass and 'jilmir to exclude, as far as possible, the hot winds and the dust.
 On those tracks, too where tunnels do not forbid the arrangement, the | tourist will be amused to behold the third and fourth -class car riages devoted to the traffic of the | people fashioned in stories so | that, as with the Chicago pork express, there are layers of humble travellers berthed over the heads of the others, a | kind of rolling Noah's ark in floors
 In this by no means luxurious fashion will the Hindu with his family content edly journey day and night and go upon being satisfied if he can only get over the ground cheaply. It was a mooted point at the beginning of making in India, whether or not the Shastras, the holy books, would permit orthodox and devout Hindus to perform pilgrimages by the aid of steam. Happily for the dividends of and for the convenience of the native public, the pundits decided that in We'd or Smriti there was nothing recorded against such practice, and it Is the swarm of simple people which nowadays makes the Indian lines pay together, of course, with the trade in grain, cotton and general produce.
 One must not expect fine hotels in In 1ia. They are at Bombay, Delhi, Agra, Benares Calcutta and Madras some that are moderately good, but they will hardly satisfy him who has been &C., ,ustomed to the magnificent accommo- 1atons provided by American hostel 'ies. Here and there the railway de- pot will have bedrooms as well as a but along all byroads, and n the Mofussi generally, the dawk- bungalow only is found. The dawk- is just plain whitewashed shelter, with a few bedsteads and the chance of very tough fowl, which, be- ng caught amid wild confusion at the of the arrival of the guest akes revenge for his death by the in- digestion he bequeaths to his consul ner.-Sir Edwin Arnold in the Youths