Something Like a Railway "Pass."

Manawatu Herald, 31 May 1892, Page 3

Something Like a Railway "Pass."

A railway pass that you can sell when you have done with it ; something like a pass that I A ticket that you can melt or obtain money on from your uncle's. I have a friend at court who, occasionally when I am on important journalistic business bs>nt, will sit down and write his name on a piece of paper that makes me for the time being free of his line, its carriages, and even its sleeping compartments, but I have to give it up at last. When the ticket-collectors Have punched it alout and thumbed it over it is a poor looking thing. You couldn't raise even a glass of, chartreuse upon it. But I have received from the United States through my old friend, Col. E. A. Buck (who, when I know him years ago, owned a city, a newspaper, a gaol, and a mine, all in one block, so to speak), the kind of pass that sets one thinking of Monte Cristo and the Arabian Nights. It is embossed on a silver plate made out of the pure white ore of the mine which the line was formed to exploit. The Silverton Railway Company, Mr Mears, president, makes me this handsome gift. The intrinsic value of the plate would pay for a good dinner, and the engraving upon it is a marvel of beautiful workmanship, with an exquisite vignette of a section of the line. And I am told entre nous, that, apart from free journeys and free drinks, the possession of this silver talisman is such ' a guarantee of my high tone and

good fellowship that I should find it impossible right along the line to pay for anything, and that I might even negotiate a loan if I wanted it at any bank en route. Such is American hospitality ! It reminds me of one among many stones of Mackay's generosity when he lived in California (not that he has grown less libei'al sincJe he has lived in New York), as " the Silver King." Some friends of mine were invited to dine with him. The menu was tngraven upon small blocks of silver— metal of the purest and beautifully em bossed. When thay left each guest was asked to carry a " menu card " away as a souvenir of the pleasant event. I have seen one of the mentis j it iiiakes a lovely paper weight. — People.