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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1877, 8 January 1875, Page 3

Mb Rtjskin on Railway Tbavelling. -^•Of modern machinery for locomotion, my readers, I suppose, ' thought me writing in ill-temyer when I said, in one of the letters on the childhood of Scott, " infernal jnjan&__ojMocomotion j?" In--deedpl am always compelle3."To"writerasalways compelled to live, in ill-temper. But I never set down a single word but with the serenest purpose. I meant " infernal " in the most perfect sense the word will bear. For instance, the town of Ulverstone is twelve miles from me, by four miles of mountain road beside Coniston lake, three through a pastoral valley, five by the seaside. A healthier or lovelier walk would be difficult to find. In old times,, if a Coniston peasant had any business at Ulverstone, he walked to Ulverstono; spent nothing but shoe-leather 3 on the roadi drank at the^ streams, and if he spent a couple of batz when he got to Ulverstene> "it was the end of the world." But now; he* would never think' of doing such a thing! He first walks three miles, in a contrary direction, to a railroad station, and then travels,by railroad 24 miles to Ulverstoße, paying two , shillings F fare. During the 24" miles' transit he is idle, dusty, stupid; and either, more hot or eoi.d~tiia,ii~w"as pleasant to him. In either case he drinks^beerlU iwo or three of the stations, passes his lime, -between them;' with anybody lie can fincl, _.ia talking without "having anytlihig to tallref.; and such talk-always becomes vicious, "lie arrives at Glyerstone jaded, ■ ■ :iialf« drunk, aud otherwise demoralised, and three shillings at least poorer than la the the morning. Of that sum, a shilling has gone for beer, threepence to a raiiwey shareholder, threepence in coals, and ei^hteenpcnce has been spent in employing strong men in the vile mechanical work of making and driving a machine, instead of his own legs, to carry the drunken lout. The results, absolute loss, and demoralisation, to the poor, on all sides, and iniquitous gain to the rich. Fancy, if you saw the railway officials aotually employed in carrying the countrymen bodily on their backs,,to Ulverstono, what you would think of the business! And because they waste ever so much iron and fuel besides to do it, you think it a profitable one !—Fors Clavigera.

Bathes Awkward.—A gentleman at Lake George, after waving his handkerchief for half an hour or more at an unknown lady, whom he discovered at a distant point of the shore, was encouraged by a warm response to his signals to approach his charmer. Imagine his feelings when, on drawing nearer, he saw that ifc was his own dear wife, wlioin he had left at the hotel but a short time before. " Why, how remarkable we should have recognised each other at such a distance !" exclaimed both in the same breath; and then they changed the subject.