20 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



hundred people with more or less baggage were dis- 

 patched and provided with tickets in less than twenty 

 minutes. Ten minutes before our departure there was 

 not a train in sight, though the whole crowd of passen- 

 gers was ready to board it. Then began the switching, 

 the lining up of cars, the loading of freight cars, the seat- 

 ing of passengers, examining of tickets by the conductor, 

 who politely answers all reasonable questions as he goes 

 from one to the other; all this was done in the twinkling 

 of an eye and when the signal for departure was given, 

 the steam whistle blew and the train pulled out to the 

 very minute, at 11:45 a. m., as scheduled. To one who 

 has never been on a railroad train, the feeling which he 

 experiences is decidedly strange. Most people imagine 

 the speed of the train to resemble a flash of lightning, 

 but this is very exaggerated, as one can plainly recognize 

 all objects which the train passes, even those which are 

 closest to the rails. The strange noise of the rolling, the 

 whizzing and hissing of engine and cars as they cut the 

 air at high speed, the whistling at the approach of road 

 stations, all this may annoy less sensitive ears than mine, 

 particularly during the first trip.* 



The country between Stettin and Berlin offers very 

 little change of scenery; only a few hills, but mostly low 

 plains, whose well-laid-out farms give ample proof of the 

 hard toil which the horny-handed peasant has already 

 accomplished so early in the year; but, with all that, this 

 monotonous sameness does not rest the eye of the trav- 

 eler, as there are neither forests nor large bodies of water 

 to vary the appearance of the landscape. Here and there 

 may be some variety apparent, but that is all. The train 

 stopped at Tanton, Passon, Angermunde, Neustadt, 

 Eberswalde, and other little stations, three or five min- 

 utes at a time. The stations are all well built, and in 

 some instances even they are magnificent structures, 

 which result is one of the benefits of government owner- 



*These are the natural observations one would have made when 

 railroad travel was first introduced.- — Transl. 



