THE STORY OF LOPS WIFE 19 



by the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, a railroad 

 operated under government ownership, the only one, so 

 far as I know, so owned and operated on this continent. 



Those who imagine a multitude of good things to 

 come from such ownership in the United States should 

 surely take a trip to New Brunswick and see how their 

 pet theory works out in practical operation. They will 

 quickly be disillusioned. In the forty-seven miles over 

 which we traveled, the road-bed was poorly ballasted, 

 the rails were light and very carelessly laid. The cars 

 were dirty and dilapidated, wash-bowls broken, toilet 

 rooms filthy, windows dirty and the water coolers out 

 of commission. The stations were decrepit in appear- 

 ance and slovenly kept, everything betokening the fact 

 that here was a road that had political sponsors, polit- 

 ical favorites as operators and, perhaps, more or less, 

 political graft in the purchase of supplies and in the 

 appointment of the men. 



Boisetown was the end of our railroad journey, and 

 the beginning of the serious and rugged part of the 

 trip. I wish that a faint picture could be given of the 

 character of the road over which our course lay. The 

 first day's journey was a gradual and lasting climb to 

 a higher altitude, although we seemed to go up and up, 

 only to come down again to the same level. 



On some steep inclines the soil had washed away 

 from the surface of the road, leaving a pathway of 

 nothing but naked boulders of all sizes and shapes. 



