The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-09
FAULTS OF OUR RAILROADS
CRITICISMS OF ONE WHO HAS
TRAVELLED 300 600 MILES.
HArdships the Passenger Has to Endure or
the Main Line -DiscOmfOrts OF Even
the Principal Trains Companions OF
railroads Here and those Of Europe.
By TOBY HAMILTON,
1907. by r, F, Hamilton.

BY ToDY HAMILTON.
ropynght. 1907. by r. p, Hamilton.
Rssing the calculation on the average
., the actual show work on the road, l
have covered moro than 100000 miles dur
ing my career as press agent This does
.or include the transatlantic trips and
long stretches of rail in Europe.
The show averages about 500 miles n
week for the season OF thirty weeks; but
hestjes covering tho show route my duties
have often called me back and forth a
thousand miles at a jump. For instance,
In the season OF 1905 Mr.. Bailey wired me
10 'come back TO the show" l was. as
usual. a month ahead and at Minneapolis.
Nv next towns we're Mankato. Mimi;
WatertoHn, S. d.. and Aberdeen. in that
state. MIR. Bailey was in Detroit.
left Minneapolis at night. reached
Chicago the next morning, left there at
night and reached Detroit Sunday morn
ING. tax ed with Mr.. Bailey from 3 till !
o'clock, left Detroit that night and was
hack in Minneapolis Tuesday morning. l
left Minneapolis that night, made Aber-
deem next day and was in Mitchell, S.. D.,
the same evening.
In an opposition fight to gain time / have
breakfasted in one town, lunched in another,
taken my supper in a third and slept in a
fourth. Once ] made five cities in ore
day and slept in a sixth. ] thus gained
three weeks time, putting in the extra
time where we had opposition. In making
this time ! left it to the car porter to deliver
the specified cuts at the newspaper offices
Nhere | had made contracts.
The circus press agents experience must
necessarily differ from that OF the COM
mercial drummer or other traveller. He
covers all sorts of towns in every section
and travels in all sorts of ways
With this store of personal experience
on our own and foreign railways, I am
tempted to make some odious comparisons.
In doing so | am aware that I risk the emil
nent di-pleasure Of those who claim every
thing for the United States. l shall have
' to dispute this claim, not only in reference
TO railway accommodation but in many
other things. We have much to be thank
full for, but the sun of things terrestria
does not rise and set in America. There are
other pebbles on the worlds beach.
| have often heard men speaking Of the
superiority Of our railroads. Whatever
else We are deficient in our railroads, they
ssy, are incompatible. Many Of these
critics are men who have been abroad,
and they have access to the spa
and ma gaines and other means Of spread
ing their opinions
The difficulty with most Americans abroad
is their limited knowledge Of their own
affairs. They have perhaps been from New
York to Chicago over the superb lines of the
Pennsylvania or New York Central, travel
ling by the Limited, always in a Pullman
vestibule train. without the slightest idea
= Of that horrible day car" or the awful an
noyances of the Accommodation or local
trains.
They have rarely been of the great
trunk lines or far separated from the chair
car or the Pullman. So when they dis
cover the third class car of Italy or France
it makes their flesh creep. They return
from the mountain roads Of Switzerland
and southern France and welcome the
Twentieth Century train for Chicago with
4 noble burst of patriotic pride. These
fellows make me tired.
The simple truth is that, onoe of the main
lines, railway travel in this country is a
hardship There are nothing but local
trains, often but one a day each way, and
that sometimes really is a freight with a
Engle passenger coach.
There is only one official guide" con-
tsining the time tables Of all railroads,
printed in small type and figures, and as
heavy as the unabridged dictionary. It is
! rarely on sale except in big cities.
In Europe there are several railway guide
hooks, and they can be found everywhere
where books or papers are sold. They con-
tain, besides the time tables, a valuable list
NJ hotels, rates Of meals, price Of rooms.
nc, Of all the cities on the lines OF the roads
running into such cities.
We have a hotel book, but it is to be found
only in Pullman cars and in some hotels.
As no traveller with hand baggage could
lug these two books along, each one must
make OUT his own itinerary, or go, as most
Americans do, haphazard.
The Pullman and the chair car are never
found except on trunk lines, and then mostly
only on through trains; but the Pullman is
most uncomfortable anyway. You can't
lean back or even sit upright, without
hitting the person behind you, and you ant
lie down or stretch your limbs for want 81
paw ~ Hlt n lew lOuIe II ali ulndluTdl
position leaves a man as tired as IL he had
done a days work.
And the smoking car on local lines! Us
uallyit is next tothe baggage car; often on
branch lines it is a part Of the baggage car.
Generally il is crowded with emigrants and
laborers who are smoking short pipes or the
Nlest Of vile cigars. and often some of the
Passengers are drunk, boisterous, dirty and
odorous The aisles of the car are slippery
with tobacco juice.
\. third class carriage in Europe ia az
hlthy and Objectionable; and those who
rde in our smoking car pay first class fare
more than they would lave TO pay for the
finest and most comfortable accommoda-
tons abroad.
In some Of our through trains a man may
nave a place TO smoke lin the Pullman in
which he occupies a seat; but a special
smoking or buffet car is now used on the
iast trains. 1t is usually next TO the en-
gne, while the dining car is near the rear
Of the train.
10 cat you must walk through from FIVE
70 seven cars, and to smoke you must
yak the same distance back. Many stay
Hsht there aud breathe tobacco smoke
rather than make the trip TO and fro. Mind
Vol. my frIapIa 0hnaa - aus lo.,,,. o.l