NOTES ON A TRIP FROM WELLINGTON, N.Z., TO BOSTON (MASS.), UNITED STATES; AS READ BEFORE THE WELLINGTON CATHOLIC INSTITUTE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 43, 15 February 1889, Page 25

NOTES ON A TRIP FROM WELLINGTON, N.Z., TO BOSTON (MASS.), UNITED STATES; AS READ BEFORE THE WELLINGTON CATHOLIC INSTITUTE.

( Continued-")

27th. To-day I have to mourn the loss of a faithful friend — my meerschaum which dropped on the floor of the car while I was sleeping and wae picked up by some collector of scattered property. I strongly suspect a pock-marked youth who is in the same car, en routt from 'Frisco to some place beyond Chicago. His principles are loose, I know, from his own showing. We pass the celebrated Black Canon, the mountains towering ou each side almost shutting out the sky, and the cars winding round the bice so close that ona can touch the rocks on one side — at the other is a mouctaia torrent. Then comes a tug-df-war up the ascent leading over tha last Ciain of tbe Rockies. Two engines are pulling might and main, occasionally passing through snow efce-ds. lam told that this line was made at the sacrifice of an immense number of lives. We reached the summit, where one engine was detached and went on in front. We went down on the other side at a tremendous pace, using the brakes all the time. The engine which went on in front might be seen rushing at our train at the rate of 45 miles an hour, and then suddenly disappearing around the abrupt curves leading us down the mountain. To look out of the cars at the awful depths below is almost certain to bring on a fit of the nerves. We arrive at Denver at 12,30. a.m. on tha morning of the 28th, lam tired and cold, and as we have soma 8 hours to wait for " connection," Igoto a hotel for the night. A comfortable sleep does me good and enables me the better to face the remainder of my journey. Denver is a pretty town doing a good business. I find here, as I noticed in some of the smaller towns, that you cannot tell by the outside of the shops (stores) what is inside Denver is a welllaii-out city. The streets are broad and handsome, and, unlike 'Frisco, ihey areeven arid clean, the want of the great traffic and dry weather being the cause of it, I fancy. We left Denver at 10 a.m. and at nightfall came to a place called " Bartley." Here an amusing scene occurred : about twenty young laughing girls surrounding a young man who is leaving that place. They were shaking hands with him in a violently demonairative manner. One young woman on the outskirts of tbe crowd jumped up and said she wanted to kiss him: the others united in asking mm not to go away. One of oar passengers said " Oar girls didn't give me such aGo 1-speed." Immediate y after leaving Bartley we pullei up at the scene of an accident. The Lighmlng Express, which had been going at the rate of sixty miles an hour, had run off the track and tha cars were capsized, one man being killed and several injured. The engineer got jammed and was almost scalded to death by the escaping steam. A ludicrous side to the otherwise tragical occurrence was that the engine of the unfortunate express telescoped a car full of hogs which was standing on the siding, and the hogs that epcaped being killed ran all about and into ttie neighbouring houses. We were detained over an hour and a half, waiting for the line to be clearpd. In a characteristic conversation which I partially overheard among the passengers in my cpt the following t-craps are noteworthy :— Passenger : "I saw the • Flyer ' pass Bartley once, and by (i she never touched the earth for ten miles ; the track was soft and she jumped." Second paaßenger : " I travelled from Portland, Maine, into Boston once, 110 miles, in 100 minutes. An Englishman who was holding on with Doth hands asked me how long this speed was to be kept up. I said, • Guess so long as she keeps on tbe track, or till she gets to Boston,' " Third passenger ;

Travelling on the Central Paciic in Nevada I saw some jackrabbits ; t^ere mutt have bf en 50,000 jackrabbits, by GG."— — ." From this they fljjbt to talk of farming and nock-raising, Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill), Bill Foley (another cattle king), horse-taming, the relative merits of wild and tame horses, etc. 29 ih, 10.30 a.m.— Pacific Junction. A young, pleasant-faced fellow in the car told me this morning that the corpse of his most intimate friend was in the baggage waggoi, and that he was as good afe low ai ever walked. Changed int) a first-class car this morning, the bfautiful appointments of which I much appreciate. We crossed the Mississippi this evening. 30th. — Arrived in Chicago at 730 am. Transferred from the Union Depot by Parmalee's 'Bus Service. As we ratled over the froien streets I was so benumbed with cold and upiet from constant travelling that I could scarcely notice my surroundings. Snow falling heavily, a leaden eky, and the dull roar of the traffic ot this city ot five or sii hundred thousand inhabitants was all I noted before my time came to again start on my eastward course. 31st, 5 p.m.— Buffalo. Very tired and ill. I have to wait three hours for the train leaving for Boston, »ia Niagara. The Depot in which I am sitting is spacious, acd heated to a high degree by steam pipes, with stoves placed at intervals. It is lighted brilliantly by electricity. Outside close to the pUtform is a pole 250 feet high, from which is suspended a large globe of electric light, which must appear to the uninitiated like a miniature sun. At the door of the depot stands a conductor who at 10 minutes to train time calls out to the passmgen " all ab >ard f r the ' Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Express going east,' or whatever train may be going east or west. His voice sounds solemn and sad as it rolls out the warnings to the waiting passengers. This practice obtains at all the large depots so that v is a> impostibility for anyone to rnUs a train. On enquiry 1 fiid that if 1 go on to Albany I can reach Boston the ••me night, but that, if I go via Niagara I shall have to pass another night on the road, so I elect to go on to Albany and miss Niagara as I have an ever-increasing feeling of illness on me. I start at 8 a.m. for Albany and Boston, and through mistaking my instructions for the first tijoe I get on the wrong train. I have an intuitive percep* ion that such is the case, and, asking the conductor I find that I am going to a place called Blackrock. He pulled up thetraia and dropped me. Amid a network of lin-s I picked my way in the semi-darkness across to the Urraflrma outside tie depot and rushed back, to find my train standing far away from the platform, with " all aboard," ready to start. 1 dodge nnder a Pullman cai, run the gauntlet of an engineer or two a"d get on board just in time. We reached Albany at 5.15 p.m. and changed cars for Boston. To give an idea of the intense cold I need only say that the gl&sa ot the car is coated two inches thick inside with ice and there are double glasses on each window one an inch inside the other. Arrived in Boston at 1.30 a.m. on the Ist February and am driven to sb hotel through the desert edstreets of the " Hub of the Universe." Ido not rise till 11 30 a.m. I immediately join n>j friends and in the evening look around the city. Everything is shrouded ia enow ; the pleasant jangle of the sleign bells falls musically on the ear ; the street cars are running as usual, relays of men being employed to keep the rails e'e^r. The sun is shining brightly trom a blue, cold sky and thousands of people are in the busy streets, all well protected against the biting blast. What a different matter is street locomotion here. On the side walks people always keep to the right, po that two streams of pedestrians on the same sidewalk are perpetually moving along without jostling each other, The street traffic is immense and the horses pass each other on the right, not as ia our streets ou the left. The stores ar-» crowded with t ishionably dres*e 1 laditi in furs and nables. I meet a •' cead mille failthe '' from a number of old friends on the first night tf my arrival in Bostorj. lam pressed to drink lager beer of the best brand and to try some (rood cigars, but, a lap, th« pity of it ! I can do neither, as lam feeling weak and ill, with cola shudders i assmg through my frim'\ In the first four days I see aomotbing of the city, and among other sights what nad an especial interest for me was ihe fcvate Housj. It stands in a noble square — a fine building with a gilded dome. Here the B. ate Legielature hold their sit ings. In the entrauce hall, whicu is beautifully arranged, having a marble flooi, are several nichea or recesses in which are placed the tattered colours of the regiments from Massacbussets that fought in the war of the lebelhon. Tho silk in some instances is all torn, and soiled with b'ood-btains. Tt c staffs of many of the nags are broken, but are carefully mended with wire. Each flag, torn anJ bloody as it is, conveys to the beholder a whole volume of thought, upon which I need not enlarge. I also visited the Western Union Telegraph Co.'s office in State etreet, and was courteously received aud shown over the operating room. Being a company's concern and worked tor dollarp. the adjuncts (so to speak) are not very elaborate, but the in&tiuments are t f the bett and latest description. One thing I may mention about Ameiican telegraphy is that all me«Big{S are written in ink and are press-copied, uuiike outs, which are wiit en in pencil, using carbonic paper for duplicate. The. various fcystems in use would have 1 ttle or no interest for my hearers On the fifth day of my stay I am laid by the heels with tjphoil fever and pleurisy, and the doctor attending me shakes his head and declares it a bad case. From the Bth to the 17tb I battle with my grim enemy. At one tim: I woke to consciousness, io rind that the doctor had given it as his opinion that I could hardly recover. The prust was eeutforand he hail a lministered the (Sacraments. He was an American gtntleman, natntd Father O'Neill, wit*i a wonderful, health- giving, magnetic ir.rlut.nce about him. I rapidly recovered once tbc crisis was pas-el, and was able to sit up on the 17th, nnJ quite aßtonicted ttie doctor by i-howing such recuperative powers — > In passim. I may mention what struck me as a very neat invent iou W — an invention by which a h^ndt-ome fortune was amassed — and that Is the Cash Railway System which is used in all the stores in the States. Two brass lir cm of rail run all round the shop or store ; there are little baskets of brass wire suspended over the counters, and when cash is received it is put into a hollow wooden ball and placed in the basket. A string is then pulled, which hoists it up and tilts the ball

on to the railway. The tall is then impelled at a rapid r*te along an incline till it reaches the cashier's desk, when it drops into a basket close to bis hand. He extracts the cash from the bill, which ho hoists on to another inclined railway Hue, and the ball rctarns from whence it was despatched. Tma syst ;tn is in general oai and is very neat. — Before I left Boston I saw the world-renowned yacht " Volunteer," which beat t^e " Thistle" for the cap. Bhe is a magnificent centre-board, and, aa she stands on the " ways," looks a regular greyhound. Her designer, Burgess, is, it v stated, about t> baild a cutter to go to Eaglaud to compete, as English vaolt-owners say it 19 imp>ssible to biat bis centre-board built yacht*, and they decline tosead another represeata ive to rian defjit.— Caa tioae has come for me to start on my return j mrney. I procure a tick it with sleeping car accommodation to San Fr.aciscj, and on Suad*y, 26th February, at 7 p.m., I am oa the train at the " Ho )9ac Tunnel " Depot of tne Fitchbarg line, taking leave of my many kiad friends. Baggage checked, and all being ready, the train noiselessly leaves the station, and I have in all human probability looked my Ust on Boston city. Nothing of note occurred till I arrive in Caicago oa the 28th February, 9.15 a.m. I am booked by the " Burlingtoa route," and find that there i? a strike on that line ; 700 of its engineers are oat. I must go by the " Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul to Council Bluffs. The Burlington Company has 5000 miles of rail ia the heirt of the country, so tome idea may bj gathered of the immensity of their traffic and the inconvenience caused by the strike. I wait tan hours in Chicigo for the Western trim, ataying in the comfortable depot, as the weather is piercingly cold aud my health not restored. All about are iron- framed scats; crowds of people are coming and going. In a Urge dining hall at oae cad, coloured waiters are m )Ving about, a baggage cleric ia ouay handing light articles to travellers who leave them the-e for an dour or two, aid redeaoa them on ptyment of five cants. At another end twj booking clerks are dealing out tickets. Yet another window ia for Pallmin palace skeping car tickets. I take a short wa'k in the city, aud am struck with the immensity of its buildings. Streets ot ten-atoiied houses can be seen. The immense granite blocks, 18 anl 20 feet long, and 6 feet wide are set with the rough sidea out, just as they came from the quarries, giving an indescribable air of solidity and massiTeness. Chicago is a new city, it having been burned down in 1871. Its population in 1877 was 750,000. With a knowledge of this and the grea'nes9of the city on me, I could not help thinking that we had a great deal to achieve in the way of material progress in New Zealand. The great length of the streets in Chicago may bo imagined when, aa a commercial traveller told me, the address of aa individual he visited was numbered over 3000. ( T» he concluded in »ur neat.')