Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-08-29
Luxury Trains Of 1893
Released by Western Newspaper Union.

FIVE people, three women and two
men, were seated around a din
ner table at a Santa Monica, Calf,
hotel. The occasion was a modest
celebration of fifty-fourth wedding
anniversary. The five had partici-
pated in wedding breakfast in Chi
rago 81 years before. The CONVEX
sation harked back to conditions
Of 1893.
II frequently recall the wonders
to me of that trip from Iowa into
Chicago" said the bride of 81 years
ago. "The train seemed so luxuri-
ous, and it went so fast it seemed
to fly"
''It was luxurious for that
day." said the bridegroom Of 81
years ago, "but it was hot and
dirty. 1t was not vestibuled; 1t
was not air-conditiOned; one Of
the coal oil lamps, with which
the Pullman was lighted, was
smoking badly; there was no
push button with which to call
the porter. We did not have to
carry our dinner in a box, for
that train did have one Of tho
marvels Of transportation at that
time, dining car. As for speed,
it averaged nearly IS miles an
hour"
at was wonderful breakfast we
had that morning we arrived, and I
wonder if any of US could now pre-
pare such a breakfast on a wood
burning cook stove," put in the
bride.
"The people who were there were
sure the bride and bridegroom
would come out from the station in
a hanson cab, but you did not, you
arrived in one horse hack. I was
waiting for you on the front steps,"
said one of the dinner guests, bride
Sc years before. "Of course, you
couldn't phone when you reached
the station, for only the very rich
then could afford a phone"
CRUDE BUT HAPPY LIVING
For well onto three hours those
five people talked of the joys and
griefs of living in that time, more
than half century ago. The bride
told of the housing shortage in Chi
cago, caused by the opening of the
Worlds Columbian exposition early
in June. All three women had been
brides Of, for that period, reason
ably salaried office men, who had
earned in week, six 10-hour days,
what trained worker in any trade
would earn in one six-hour day at
this time.
Those three brides of half a
century ago and more, COM
pared the drudgery Of doing the
family washing in wash tub,
rubbing and scrubbing on a
washboard, with the automatic
washers and ironers of today.
They recalled the cleaning Of
lamp chimneys the filling Of
lamps and the trimming Of
wicks. All five, women and men,
remembered with a thrill the
evenings they spent together
around the organ, played by the
daughter Of the landlady with
whom the host and hostess Of
the day had lived.
They talked of the delights of Chi
cago when the city had a population
Of about quarter million people,
and now nearing four million. The
women talked of clothes; Of those
wild and woolly Chicago days when
women were not permitted to ap-
pear on the streets wearing skirts
that were not down at least to the
shoe tops.
Considered on the basis of today's
standards, life was crude, but it was
a pleasing memory. They did not
have automobiles, moving pictures,
radio, or television. Homes were
not equipped with the thousand and
one gadgets that make life easier
today. The difference between 1893
and today marks some of the prog
ress America has made in half
a century; a progress that has no
where near been equalled in any
other country in the world. But this
is America. We must keep it Amer
lea, and not try to initiate the back
ward nations Of Europe and Asia.
Third Party Danger
Over the many years reported