The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-08
SOURCE OF WONDER
[. 6 N. RAILROADS CHAIR CAR
 CAUSES MUCH SPECULATION.
Comes to Montgomery as Coach tor Whites and Departs from Here Coach for Blacks and
 Whites.

W HUGE. The passenger department of the Louis- vile and Nashville Railroad just now affords brilliant subject for study-a 5tudy that in the sporting parlance of a race track would be yclept "a startling reversal of form
 For years and years in the olden days everybody that kept trend of things rail- road. were fully aware of the fact that
 the Louisville and Nashville people threw all of the brains. energy and money that was possible to be corralled Into the laps of the general freight agent and his sub
 ordinates. These gentlemen of the freight persuasion were given almost carte
 blanche-the freight department was to be raised up to the stopnotch-the ne plus ultra of railroad excellence. How well this was done shippers and receivers all over this great country of ours can testify in thunder tones
 All this time the passenger department of that big artery had been allowed to drift along almost in any old way-while the passenger traffic has always been enormous there was nothing modern or up to date about the service which some times approached the first principles of railroading.
 A year or so ago Mir. Charles M. Stone was taken of of one of the Western roads and put at the head of the Louisville and Nashville passenger department, and 1t was only matter of a short while before 1t became apparent that he was not only on to his job. but was the founder of the town of Hustlerviile.
 We'll, there was a metamorphosis-in- stead of being the poor little founding left to fight out it's own salvation, the .1 began to be "it'-that green bay tree was tyro at the business of blossoming compared to 1t.
 Mir. Stone began making improvements in his department that caused the eyes of old timers to bulge-such a thing as a dining car was a totally unknown Guanti- ty on the Louisville and Nashville. The dining cars of the Chicago and St. Angus tine limited operated by the Chicago and East Illinois. Evansville and Terre haute, Louisville and Nashville, Plant System and Florida East Coast were the first things of the kind ever known on the Louisville and Nashville system
 Not very long after, that the Pullman shops were turning out some of the Eand- soonest dining cars ever run on anybody's railroad. and in the course Of time these cars were running from Cincinnati to New Orleans-the southbound car coming down on train No. 1 reaching Montgom- cry at II a. m. and the northbound car coming up from New Orleans on train No. 1, arriving in Montgomery at C:SO p. m.
 The passenger service was now ap- preaching a state of perfection, overland tourists realized and appreciated the fact. One thing had been the result, however, the revenue of the dining rooms along the route had "evaporated" to such an alarm ing extent that the Vannoy News Com pany threw up the sponge. gave up the dining room in Montgomery and all the other union stations and the Crescent News Company secured the contract.
 Night and day Mir. Stone was dreaming and working for the betterment ofs his passenger department, and his next move was the inauguration of line of hand some free reclining chair cars. The cars were to have been put in the service a week or so ago. but the seperation of the races was the pons asinorum that was almost fated to wreck the new venture. Yesterday morning on train No. 1 the first of the new cars reached Montgom- cry, and the ordinary day coaches m the train resembled dirty emigrant cars. while even the Pullmans looked dingy The car was equipped with the regulation Pullman trucks, broad Pullman vesti- OuieS, !pVatorleS, comp ana DruSn IdckS, towels and everything just as in Pull man car, smoking room of course heing included. Tho cars have a seating capa- city of fifty six, the chairs of handsome plush the backs of which can be raised or lowered to any ang.e at the convenience of the passenger. The windows are like the windows in the handsome diners, broad with bevelled glass and shades.
 From Cincinnati to Montgomery this car is exclusively for white passengers, a Chicago coach being put on for the cosoEed passengers. In the Montgomery shed. however. poles and curtains form a par tlerre in one end of the car, that end being shut off for colored passengers. Now the end reserved for the Coiored passengers is the end of the car that hss the lavatory and smoking room, snd to reach this lavatory white passengers gre compelled to go through the colored com pertinent and this between Montgomery and Mobile.
 Now this was the reason of the delay in | putting the cars in service. this debate l over the race question, and only last week | was 1t settled
 Yesterday morning a Montgomery gen | tleman started for the chair car, but | when he saw the end of 1t filled with | negroes he quietly went back to one of the Pullmans.
 These cars like the dinners are operated on trains 1 and g. and all of them are of the one that rassed