OCEAN TO OCEAN BY RAIL. 



17 



pages of our comic journals, while the strictly mechanical aspect of the subject is fully 

 treated in technical papers. But the facts remain that all this is of a transient nature, 

 and that the railway can hardly be said yet to have a literature of its own. 



The following episodes mainly refer to the grand railway under notice, which is 

 by all odds the longest direct road on the surface of the globe. From New York to San 

 Francisco the distance by this railway is 3,300 miles, and the ticket for the through 

 journey is about two feet long ! This would be more justly described as a series of tickets or 



MADTSOX STREET, CHICAGO. 



coupons. The writer has crossed the American continent twice by this route, his first 

 trip having been made on its completion in 1869, when, as correspondent of a daily journal, 

 he had ample facilities for examining it in detail. In Chicago he had the pleasure of 

 meeting Mr. Pullman, who kindly furnished him with information which in those 

 days, at all events, was new to the British public. He was even then trying to get his 

 famous carriages introduced into England ; as events proved, it took him several years to 

 get them even tested. In this connection he is credited with a lion mot. He was speaking 

 of our land in the highest terms, but, like many Americans, did not think we adopted new 

 ideas with sufficient readiness. "It is a grand country/' said he, "a grand country. But 

 you have to be born very young there ; " meaning that otherwise you might grow grey 

 in the consummation of even a promising scheme. 

 123 



