"THE DAILY WHIZZER." A Thousand Miles From the Sea to the Prairies in a Railway Train.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 March 1888, Page 6

"THE DAILY WHIZZER." A Thousand Miles From the Sea to the Prairies in a Railway Train.

Thk following description of a ride from New York to Chicago on " Pennsylvania Limited*' is copied irom the *' l*all Mall Gazette " : " The daily whizzer " leaves New York every morning at 9 o'clock and covers the thousand miles to Chicago in twenty-five hours. When the train was first put on the American public was incredulous of the advertised time to be occupied in the journey, and the train ian with empty soats for seveial weeks. With that alertsense of advertisement which characterises the American mind the Pennsylvania Railroad Company announced that they would refund five dollars to every passenger having a through ticket* if the train arrived at the depots in either city over fifteen minutes late. The offer was attractive to the American, who is essentially a grumbler, and likes the excitement of a race against time. When it was found that the railroad company k«pt to its engagements and handed five dollars to delated travellers the train rapidly tilled, and from that moment it proved a success. For two years the financial inducement was offered, and only when the train had become famed throughout the States for its regularity and luxury was the advertisement withdrawn. There is a boudoir for the ladies, a nursery for the children, a bath room for the cleanly and a barber for the unshorn. The dining-room is an appetising apartment, done in myrtle-green and French oak. The chief is worthy of Epicurus or the Elysee, and the dinner is too cheap at $1. The whitest of linen covers the daintiest of tables, which groan beneath the weight of china and silver. When you have breakfasted or lunched or dined, if you are a man and a smoker, you naturally adjourn, to the sumptuous divan, which is sacred fco the weed. If you wish to write, you find a dainty escritoire ready for you, with the most handsome equipment, and an electric bell will summon the attendant sprite if you wish for cigars or cocktails. *' Tho daily whizzer " usually consists' of five long cars and a composite baggage waggon. All the windows are double, to exclndo draughts, and the cars, almost free from vibration, run on pressed-papor wheels encased in steel runners. The traveller nfc one end of the train can look along tho entire length of cars without interruption. The train runs distances from 100 to 150 miles without; stopping, and then only to get a fresh locomotive. T assuro yob that they are sorry when the journey is over.