The Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 47, 17 February 1894, Page 10

The Contributor.

.AMERICAN RAILWAY YOTES

(By W. H. MathjeoOx.)

The railway luggage system in the States is reduced to a science, and is considered the most complete in the world. It may he opiickly outlined. Having decided to travel, you go to the first depot and tell a clerk the line you have chosen, and the number of your packages. He gives you a ticket. I had five small packages and one trunk, and he asked half-a-dollar for each, and when I objected that this w r as about the value of them he replied that such was the charge, and he could make no reduction. This explained how r American Havel! ers always have such immense tranks. I paid my half-dollar for the trunk and carried the parcels in my hand. On reaching’ the station I presented my express ticket, and was also asked for mj luggage ticket. On showing this it was marked, and I received a brass token the size of a shilling, fastened to a ring. I had no more trouble with my trunk till I reached Chicago. There I presented it at an express office, received another ticket, and found the .trunk at my hotel as soon as I got there. I travelled by one of the great tourist lines—the Hew Yoik Central. There is an xndiarubber gangway between each car, and if you are not satisfied with one car you can pass to another—you can traverse the whole length of the train. A bell is rung as the train leaves, and is rung for some time after the train clears the station. There is no crowd to see us off—people are mot admitted to the platform without .a ticket. For about ISO miles we akirted the Hudson, the Khine of America, and saw much that was lovely as we journeyed on. Mount St. Vincent, once the home of Edwun Forrest, the tragedian, now occupied by a Catholic school for girds, famous for the excellence of its educational system ; Irvington, a. pretty place named after Washington Irving; Sunnyside Cottage, where dwelt America’s greatest poet; the home of Jay Gould’s heirs; Sing Sing, the famous gaol ; Peekskill, where Henry Ward Beecher once lived ; the State Camp, where yearly drill is nnder-

taken—these are some of the places of which the travel lei- gets a glimpse. Seventy-five miles out from Yew York we reach Poughkeepsie, a town of 25,000 inhabitants, where the Buckeye reaper and mower works are situated. It is also famous for its cantilever bridge. It spans the Hudson at this point, and in magnitude, boldness of design, and beauty is a fit rival to the Perth bridge. At this point darkness set in, and the historic Hudson faded from my view. While sitting m the baggage car chatting with the conductor and the two baggage men, from whom I gained a let of information about railway matters, I noticed the conductor look at his watch. I asked what was on his mbtcl. He said, “ We ought to pass the lightning express about here,” and the words were hardly out of his mouth when we heard a roar, and in a few seconds there was a rush of steam, the glimmer of lights, and the express thundered by. We were running at the time over 30 miles an hour, making up time. The express was also late, and must have passed as at over 70 miles an hour, so that practically we passed at the rate of 130 miles an hour. It made me shudder to think what would have happened if the pointsmen had blundered. In the early morning at a town called Detroit, our train was run on three sections on to an immense river steamer, and we were taken bodily across about a mile and landed safe and sound on the other side in a very few minutes. I noticed that the landing stage was lowered by hydraulic power, and the rails connected automatically. Our engine ran up with one section, then shunted and ran back for the other two parts of the train, and we were steaming away into the town in a very short time. Detroit is lighted by electricity, and I think it has superseded gas in nearly all large towns in America. 1 hope it will do so ere long in Invercargill, as it is in every way preferable.