House & Garden 
BOSTON & ALBANY R. R. 
of the stations, the air was sweet with the 
perfume of wild roses which, in orderly 
disorder, climbed the banks on either side. 
There were tew ot the appurtenances ot a 
railroad. The very telegraph poles were so 
hidden in the shrubbery that they were 
scarcely noticeable, and the thought came 
here, as it was subsequently to do often in 
the tour, that if the time should come when 
electricity could be profitably used on this 
Circuit division, no small part of the business 
that the trolleys have stolen from the railroad 
may be won back, not so much by the better 
time which the distinct and unbroken right 
of way can afford, as by the surpassing beauty 
of the long flower-bordered course. 
Two things only demanded special criti¬ 
cism here; and because they were found 
repeatedly, at station after station, they may 
be noted. First, the unshaded condition of 
the platform; second, the lighting apparatus. 
As to the first, the overhanging eaves of the 
little station building doubtless offer all the 
shade that is required by waiting passengers, 
but how much pleasanter the platform might 
planting is far better, and is less fraught with 
pitfalls, than where the sole dependence—or 
main dependence—is placed on bright-hued 
flowers and on the eagerness of untrained 
station-masters to win company prizes. The 
system gives us a right to expect a higher 
class of work, even though conditions—of 
cinders, soot, dust and drought—still neces¬ 
sitate, as Mr. Richardson puts it, “the 
survival of the toughest” only. 
Proceeding out ot Boston by the Circuit, 
the first station beyond the city proper is 
Longwood. The railroad touches it on a 
curve, and, as usual in the avoidance of grade 
crossings throughout the suburbs, the tracks 
are depressed. T he slopes ot the cut are 
thickly planted with low-growing shrubs, 
above which rises picturesquely, in the near 
distance, the square tower of a church. 
The low stone station of the Richardson 
type nestles beside the track in a clearing 
of lawn ; and up and down the line ot road, 
the vista, once the train has passed, is as 
restful and as peaceful as a country lane all 
flower-bordered. The day 1 made the round 
RIVERSIDE STATION 
567 
