NOTHING TO BOAST OF.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2000, 6 March 1914, Page 5

NOTHING TO BOAST OF.

, THE TRUTH ABOUT THEM. i AMERICAN TRAINS. ' • Neiliing is more surprising to me than the perversity with which people boast about the wrong things. : f hare, for instance, a tri?nd who plays an excellent. game of golf, is a lawyer, of mtasnal cunning, a.ndhas, morally, a Maineless ' reputation. He has a right to prklo himself on any Or all rf theso achievements., but Ire never says a word nbout them. He snaggws insufferably about liis watercolour sketches, Which are Tho Americans behave in the same way. They haffl plenty of-things to be proud of. They eoo.k better then the E'nglfsh do. Their domestic aWMljjeuientS are luore civilised than those,'of any luxojxmu country. They surpass ether peoples ia fifty different ways and seem unconscious of the fact. But alt Americans boast about their trains, and their trains are vile,

It may !><? granted that the- American train goes farther than any train in Europe. Ymi can get inio one in. New York, and stay .in it far longer than you caw in any European train. It will keep going for days and days. But that is its sola point of ■•superiority, and that is not the- thing tte American .is proud of. He says his train is comfortable,'a most β-tnazitw assertion. He jxrints with pride to liis Pullman eats, and they dn, I admit, answer to tho Beeds of liis nature* Sβ is sociable, aind he likes to be herded with other peopleA compartment to himself, the ideal of every travelling Englishman, trouW be to*tee. to an Amotieau.j Ho likes, when the night comes, to sleep in a berth, with sofflebddy ■eke either above or below him, with some stranger's feet within t»o inches of Ms fead, and his own legs soiled, up lest h.is feet should come against the- head of the lady in the berth; beyond ham.

Toilet (n aßerth. I do net know how the- thing is done. I caiiirot get my trottsftrs eVther <$ or e.n when 1 am lying en mj side with no cha.Jiee of sitting up. llie Atoerican tnail can and does. He cveii euecefds in folding the gaiTivents and puttffls them flat under bis'mattress, bo that the}* co-fne out creased in the orthod-ox way nest mot-nips. I cannot, no matter how I .try, Ko on, my collar alj night without erusiii-ijg it. The American man can. -His collar C-ijmes out stiff and .gtesy. Mine- is a mere fag. I shrink from attempting, to 'imap;itio what haiipeais to tlie. American kdy in & PaliBTau sleeping ear. It is not, perhaps, surprising that, tho Americans can do these tlvings. They are a- /very ivoiiderfu.l people, ajid aro constantly accomjilishing: what I should wgard as impossibilities.' What does aniase mo is that they should call this sort ,«f tras-elling, croinfortaMe, I sup' pbsf9.it is tticjir mieo.nqueriiWe spirit of s.oasb.i : li%. jvhteli makes them do it. I admire, the spirit of "-ocia-tsilfty as nmeii fts i admiro everything else wlifclj I -have not get myself; but I think 'tho PijHn'ia.n sjetping.-car carries sociability tee- far, We of one's fellmv-nian is a virtne." and, of coarse, I want my i>l-.law-m-SJi to love ni&. But t doubt if jio wiJL. fovo mt» mq-re iu ihe long run through having to wateli the tnattress over -his. head: heavp and bulge every ti-m-6 I ffritlie in my upper berth. I kiiow that I hate- instead'of loving feim wheu 1 have listened to him storing for six hours.

/ European Qisllkafrt trains, It is clear that tire Americans who have invented comforts and cenvetti.{snees -timto 'itraiigd to us could, if they wis.ii.ed-, haw invented some form -of railway carriage tetter than the Pullman' ear. They, have nqt d<]ne so, an'ij they cojisistaitly maintain that it is the perfect vehicle for travelling, ■ especially for traveling long -distances wheu night's must be spent- on .the way. let- they are a, pcoplo who insist'on decency, and -civilised appointments in tlteir' Jioine life. I can only sappose that tjiey set so liigli a valtj.e on ojiwortijmties far siw-iabiiity that they will sacrific-c -overytlwng eise to get- them. Their treatment of the traifra them* selves, the actual engines itnd coaches, .cemfirhrs mp, in- tin's. -wpiaiioii. Blse-frhe-fc in; the world'.trains are treated w-itU; every xign «f dislfke -by thc'ii lioMtajlSs of tha towns into wliich they ran. They are. made to cDnceal WiemsMves in tunnels, or where this is mt possible, to run only poet the backs <tF fftenft-houses. , You get the wwst possible inijarcssion- 'of any town when y<tu enter it in a {j-ain. You s-co hmic irf* its fiite bsiilclings or l»r*oad stroeta; you see- himg out te dry, on grimy lines,'the tattered iinderdaUies of the poof. The. ■fact-is, iltat in Europe pcojpifi disl-iko ■tfain5 f _a.iid hide them away'" as mtreh as pflssiwev. Tho fedingis natural, for tho tra-iii is a.ctifty tte'ng and misjli't my easily bejonie tlanwordue if it we'f« al-Igwed- to fun nta-g at across the chief thoMuglifaas. Tiwre is, be-sides, in ~the EtiTopean liiiftd. ail instinetavo ilistfust β-f- strange tlafuga.ahct st.ra.ftge .pcoplo. We like to keep owr ihousr* and foams as prfvn-ta as possible. "trains are straftge. They'come from far-away mwes and bring strange people in' them". \vo «awimt help thciT com ing, 1-rut wo do our best not te allow the inipleasa-Bt fact to obtrnclc itself.

■ The Hes.pitabto Amorioan. llio Americans are so sociable and heritable that they welcome even trains. This is not. tile ca-so iu Neff Ver'k,. which is cosniopsiiitaii in spirit ratSer tlvaii Amcriqui. 'Thei-e tiro teaife arc coKccalod ia ihe usual way. fl-tit wii-eii ydu.got oiit to' the mirth, along Wio chores of the great Iritajs-, or to the rakMle west, yon fintj that trains iup treated hi a very different, wa.y. The? eross aftd rocross thts strorts «f tofras, ringing, ehteevy bolls ai tliey go. Ssiric■times they tun for cWrsideratik. distaucps aloiig streats, so that jrtiu caft look k at the shop wiiulews as you pass, am} take off yottr htrt to u> trhvd wjio hfti*pons to bs ivat.kinp on tho foot[siit]i, This is Hftt' aiT accidejit or the result «f wajit of oousideratiofi in t!ic mailing of railway linos or t-iio la.ymg out of streets, ft omikl be alieM at any time if alteration wc-ft dnsifablfr. JsJeboslj wants to alter it. the Anusritwi puts up 111411 tiie. snuits which Kiiii from Hie engi-ae;;he takes his cSisiiec of being nin over wbpte lie is vfossUig tlie street btcawsp he Ji>es to see tte train and wants to give it a hearty welcome. Bisattitude towards it is part of that instinct fc-f irsibeundod hospititllty add that passion for sociability which make him Ks;o in houses witheitt tfeors and' tm-cl' in Pullman isleepiii.tf^car-s.—Beergo Xt Birniii-isham, '» tte "Daily Mail.""