AMERICAN NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 75, 27 March 1872, Page 2

AMERICAN NOTES.

The following notes are contributed to the Sydney Morning Herald by a recent traveller : — Another thing I wish to mention about American railroads is the facility of stopping at intermediate points of a long journey, and of changing one's route after buying tickets. For example, at San Francisco I paid the fare to New York along certain lines of railway (140 dollars in greenbacks), and got a string of tickets, each marked with a place on the route. At any of these places I might have staid at pleasure, and at any other places on simply mentioning my wish to the conductor ; and this latter privilege I availed myself on two occasions. But further, on arriving at Chicago, I determined to go to Niagara by the Grand Trunk through Sarnia and Buffalo, instead of by the more direct Great Western, and from that on to New York by the New York Central and the Hudson River, instead of direct by the Erie. Well, at an office in Chicago I got what remained of my original tickets exchanged for a new set covering the desired route, and had to pay only a dollar extra for the accommodation. Again, on arriving at* Michigan I determined to diverge into Canada before striking the Hudson. Once more I got my tickets exchanged on paying the cost of the extra distance to be gone over. Now amongst these particulars I have hastily run over are there not to be found some hints for improvement in colonial railway affairs ? I shall not stop to press the application of these remarks ; but I am confident that colonial travelling might be much improved, and that by increasing its comfort its profit to the Government would be increased also. For why do Americans travel so much ? The crowds we see continually being poured out by trains and steamboats are something marvellous. Well, they are a restless people, and many causes may conspire to set them in motion. But the facilities offered to them on every hand, the clear and full information pressed on them as to every line of travel, the comfort and cheapness of the conveyances, the trouble they are saved in moving, and the wellordered hotels everywhere oyen to tbem, must rank high among these impelling causes, and, if imitated in the colonies, would doubtless produce much of a similar result. But some of my readers may ask, are not American railroads and steamboats very dangerous ? Don't the former frequently " collide," aud the latter blow up ? Let us look into this matter. Since I landed in America, there bave been some dreadful accidents, and, indeed, as I read in the papers day by day of deaths by collisions, by explosions, by murders, by suicides, by wild Indians, by Lynch-law and State-law, by mining casualties, by machinery, by drunken orgies, and by street riots, it seemed to me that the waste of life in this country was appalling, and that the people as a rule must be very reckless. But I have come to modify this view. There is great competition among newspapers here. They love anything sensational. The destruction of human life furnishes precious copy, and so they For remainder of news see fourth page.

dwell upon it, toll it, so to speak, as a sweet morsel under the tongue, view it in all aspects and relations, pile words about it, return to it day after day, and present the dish as often as they dare until the crambe repetita palls on the public taste. *'#>-* * * * * * But to return. What lam driving at is this : the frequent reproduction of the same case in newspapers gives a casual reader the impression that dreadful occurrences are more common than they really are. In the case of railroads there have been several minor accidents, but I think only one of any magnitude since we landed. That one happened at Boston while we were there; and if ever an "accident" (for tbe term is misused) was carefully prepared for, or worked up to, this was one. A crowded train bound to call at every station, was sent out of Boston on a dark night only twenty minutes before an express train that was to call at no station for many miles. There was much traffic on the line, and the slow train got further delayed by another crossing its path — a train, it was said, returning from a Methodist camp meeting. It did not appear from the evidence that any precautions were taken by the conductor of the slow train or the engine-driver of the fast, and tbe former was just leaving a small station about seven miles from Boston, when the engine of the latter dashed into a car full of people. Over thirty lives were lost, many being scalded to death by the steam tbat rushed from the boiler. But, shocking though this case may be, it is not equal in unmitigated horror to the burning of a train by petroleum, not long ago, in England, where of course, the sufferers were securely locked into the carriages. And my impression is that I have lately read of about as many railway accidents in England as in America, within the same time, although the amount of travelling here must be greatly in excess of that in England. Then as to steamboats. Two bad explosions occurred during our stay. One at Mobile, the day after the Boston collision, gave a list of sixty or seventy killed and wounded. On that same day there was a collision on the Erie railroad, with loss of several lives. The worst explosion was that of the ferryboat Westfield, at New York, in the month of July, when about 100 people were killed. It turned out at the inquest that the engineer could not read or write — a remarkable fact in this land of universal and free education. A Chicago paper, on the morning after my arrival there, made the following remarks : — "As was reasonably to be expected, the enginer of the exploded ferryboat Westfield turns out to have been entirely ignorant of his profession. He could ~ not tell the difference between a high or low pressure engine, or describe a vacuum, or even read the inspector's certificate so as to know how much steam pressure was allowed to the boat's boiler. The sum of his knowledge consisted in knowing bow to grease the machinery, and the sum of his qualifications was embodied in the fact that he had never blown up any other boat." It did not appear, however, that the explosion was caused by this man's ignorance, for there was a defect in the boiler of which he had no reason to be cognisant. But, notwithstanding this lamentable case, I have been assured that steamboat explosions are rare on tbe eastern si^e, and that they are confined chiefly to the Mississipi and its tributaries. The general conclusion I come to is that travelling in America, whether by rail or steamei (excluding the Mississipi as being beyond the scope of my observations), is not sensibly or materially more dangerous than in England or the colonies. A significant fact bearing on this I learned from the secretary of a life assurance company. In the experience in such companies in New York, only 10 per cent, of the whole deaths among members are from other than natural causes; while in the experience of the Mutual Provident of Sydney, fully 20 per cent, are so. Closely connected with the subject of railways is that of street cars — those 1 1 mean that are drawn by horses on iron rails laid along the street. This mode of locomotion has attained to a great development in America, and the accommodation it affords to street travellers is inestimable. Unquestionably the rails interfere seriously with^the ordinary wheel traffic, but the street cars are so great a boon that no one dreams of putting them down because of their inconvenience to common wheels. And it is possible by care in laying the rails and adjusting them to the contiguous pavement, to reduce this inconvenience to _. small amount. But in most cases that •came under our notice, no particular care ihad been used. We found also that they •are oot restricted to wide streets, but are _on on wide and narrow alike— -on streets •quite aB narrow as Pitt-street, in Sydney, where they were taken up. The fare generally is five cents, sometimes six, and.

in Philadelphia seven. If the course be long, and go much beyond the city, the fare is slightly increased, but in Chicago we went about five miles for five cents. The conductors are generally provided with tickets, which they give for change, and by taking a packet of these tickets at once they are got a little cheaper. In New York no tickets seem to be used. In San Francisco, in Philadelphia, and probably in other places, for I am mentioning those only that came under my own , observation, the tickets of one company are taken by others ; and to a certain extent there is " correspondence " between the lines ; that is to say, a person on some cross route will be taken part of the , way by one car, and then passed to another j without further charge, or for a small adI ditional charge. In some places for example, at Chicago and Brooklyn, we found cars with no conductors, and the drivers are not allowed to take fares. In these cars the passenger has to drop his fare into a box beside the driver, who looks through a pane of glass to see if it is right, and then lets it into a lower receptacle. If the passenger wants change, the driver is provided with little packets of it for various sums up to two dollars. The passenger gets one of these and takes from it his exact fare. This nystem, however, did oot seem io common use. It is difficult to see how the street traffic in New York could be carried on without the cars. They follow in quick succession through many lines, and are generally full. In Third Avenue, for example, they come every minute, and yet it is often hard to find standing room in them. I have often heard of the great attention paid to women in America, and of the readiness of men to give up to them the best places. In these cars I was often struck with the reverse of this. It was quite common to see strong hulking fellows, and even boys, keeping seats while women were standing. On some lines in New York there are drawing-room cars, elegantly fitted up, and charging 15 cents. Omnibuses are run in most towns in addition to cars. The fare is generally higher, as, for example, in New York, where it is ten cents, instead of five. No yelling conductors stand behind the 'buses as in Sydney. The driver looks after his passengers, and takes their money through a small aperture beside his seat. When a passenger wishes to alight he strikes a bell by pulling a strap in the roof.