New-York tribune., 1908-02-23
TO CHICAGO BY TROLLEY.
Boston Man Makes / ,5OO-Mil:: Trip,
but Part Way by Steam.

To those who like TO travel and while travelling
want to enjoy all the beauties of the lands through
which they journey the trolley offers the most at
fractions. AS a rule the steam roads whisk from
point to point. giving the passenger little more
than a passing glimpse of the country; they enter
the cities by the backyard route and seem to pick
out the most forsaken and desolate stretches OF
country for the location of the tracks. With the
trolley 1t is different. The electric cars traverse
the best streets of the city. and catering TO the
holiday seeker must perforce follow the
beautiful places through the country.
A Boston man. who could not afford an automo-
bile early last fall took trolley ride from Boston
Chicago. a trolley ride of fifteen hundred miles
would seem like a venture foreboding untold dis
comfort and Inconvenience; but the charm of riding
through the green woods and fields on a summers
day with the privilege of getting off whenever you
want TO far more than offsets the trouble of chang
ing and paying fares every little while. After
this trip the from Boston has fine concep-
tion of our country and the people living between
these two cities. He is able TO speak intelligenty
the places he has visited knows the mighty
resources of the land.
With suitcase packed, he boarded a trolley car
one morning in Boston. and was soon on his way
to the Middle West. The total weight of his i'm
pedimenta about forty pounds for he had long
ago learned the lesson of the experienced traveller
and expected to purchase everything possible en-
route.
He found the scenery far beyond his expectations
The trolley line from Boston to TarrytOWn. N
is unbrohen save for few feet at Stamford Bridge
Mass. After days visiting friends and seeing
the sights in New York, he started on the journey
across the Empire State. Here he met with his
greatest difficulties. AT Tarrytown he had to leave
the trolley for the steam road far as Hudson
After a short visit to the Albany Capitol he con-
tinued his trip, by way of Schenectady to Fonda
and again found he would have to take a steam
train far Little Falls, distance of thirty
miles. Between Auburn and Seneca Falls and from
Rochester to Batavia he had resort to the steam
roads. but at last he reached Niagara Falls by
trolley.
From Buffalo to Kalamazoo Mich is one 11n-
broken line of trolley roads From Erie the
electric road through old Dutch country
or pennsylvania. The clean and orderly aspect of
the little farms and their keepers appealed to the
Boston man and he spent considerable time in
studying the people and their odd ways In Ohio
he found ideal country for the electric road In
this state electric traction has been developed to
its highest point and there is web Of trolley rails
its entire length and breadth The cars are of
luxurious types and travel wonderful speeds he
tween the various towns cities I3v far the
best part Of the journey was between Cleveland
and Toledo, stretch of 125 miles where the cars
made an average speed of thirty-fve miles an hour
and were unsurpassed by the finest day coaches in
the country From Toledo TO Detroit the coun-
try almost like New England with IFS largo
farms and pretty villages. From Detroit to Kali
amazoo the trolley took him through beautiful
meadows OF high grass. through cool forests and
by white farmhOuses and quiet hamlets. At Ann
Arbor he visited the University of Michigan. AT
Battle Creek he saw the woodworking plants and
the cereal factories. and at South Haven he saw
for the hrst time the great lake of Michigan From
Watervliet tc st. Joseph Mich, he had to ride ON
the steam cars for twenty miles, and from there he
took trolley to Laporte. Ind and finally on TO
Hammond a distance of forty miles, by steam
From Hammond. Ind, it easy going 10 the
great city of Chicago.
From Boston TO Chicago he covered 14g7 miles
-1,2G3 miles by electric traction go miles by seap,
car, miles by stage coach and 2 miles on
foot Counting the stops way he made the
trip IN just ten days. To this distance re-
quired siXty-eight changes of cars, for which he
had 20 go down in his pocket for fare Just eighty
times.
The cost statistics follows:
Trolley fare. sla5si railway fare, $3.50; stage
coach % cents; lodging, sl7; food, 50; amusements
theaues' iairs' etc, %; souvenirs. postcards, etc.
& 30; guides. maps, books and magazines s.; kodak
films, 50 60; total. s6s "a.