England from a back-window;: With views of Scotland and Ireland

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVII. THE WONDERFUL ENGLISH RAILWAYS. IT is a long time before an American becomes tired of looking at an English railway-car: then he becomes very tired of it. They call them carriages here; and a very proper name it is, as they are coach-bodied. In size they are one-third shorter and one-third narrower than the American car, and of rather plain exterior. It is a well-known fact that they are divided into class compartments. Each car has three or four of these compartments, and all the classes: so the third-class man makes just the same speed as does his loftier neighbor who rides first-class, and is separated from him by merely an inch-board partition. The compartments run across the carriage, with entrances at the sides of the carriage, or end of the compartment. There is a seat on each side, made to hold five persons. When ten people have got into a compartment, they just fill its seating-capacity, and no one is allowed to enter it. There is a window each side of the door, and a glass slide in the door. The lamp is in the ceiling, and is supplied and lighted from the roof. Consequently, there is no brakeman straddling the seats before you in a pair of alarmingly frail pants. When you are seated, your knees and the knees of the party opposite can shake hands without rising. The upholstering of the compartment makes the class. A first-class compartment is cushioned with blue-black cloth, and the sittings are divided by arm-rests. The cushions in the secondclass are of leather, and there are no arm-rests. The cushioning of the third-class compartment is performed by nature. In riding from Derby, the central point in England, to London, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, you pay six dollars and a half to sit on a blue-black cloth cushion,...