a European gentleman were asked what city of America he would like to live in, he would reply, Boston, of course;" for a man of education would certainly prefer to associate with such charming men as Longfellow, Agassiz, Emerson, and the scientific men of America, who principally reside there or at Yale. Still, all this being fully known, to repeat it would be tedious. This applies also to many other delightful cities of New England and the Northern States. Books and Books and newspapers have made them familiar to readers. In writing these volumes I have endeavoured to narrate something new and unfamiliar-those details of life which often escape the scientific or political traveller. I have traversed the outlying country, the nooks and crannies of this vast continent, and I humbly trust they may prove as interesting as its more prominent places -Niagara, Saratoga, Newport, &c. The glories of this great land are unfolding every day; and I have no doubt that if I went back to it next year, I should find as much of novelty to record as would fill another two volumes. It is a magnificent country, and the Americans must be a little pardoned for boasting of it. CHAPTER II. OVERLAND ROUTE TO SAN FRANCISCO. NE of the greatest sensations ever worked up in the United States, was the overland route to San Francisco, "the biggest railroad in creation!" If a discovery had been made of a current of air direct to the moon, and the fact ascertained that a piece of paper could be wafted thithersay in a week-it would not, I believe, have caused more general excitement. The overland route "was bound" to be a sensation in order to make it pay, therefore it was talked up, written up, puffed up, whipped up to froth and foam like an omelette soufflée. No gazette where it was not paragraphed; no conversation where it did not crop up; no person of note who was not persuaded into having something to do with it; no person who had dollars to spare but invested them in shares. Not to be au courant of all the doings, sayings, writings-everything, in fact-connected with the great Pacific railroad, was to be a "know nothing." Sensationalism is the motive power of America. Nothing can be done without a fuss, and the "big line" made the biggest fuss of all. It permeated and saturated the country like air and water, and the great banner cry was, "The most gigantic railroad in the world, and Pulman's Silver Palace Sleeping Cars!" No wonder it became the rage in America. To do the biggest thing, the most flashy thing, is there the height of ambition. I do not say that it is not so elsewhere. Yet there was really nothing unusual in this railway but its length. It was long, certainly, but not longer than one could travel by rail in Europe. But the "Silver Palaces!" thinks the reader, "to sleep in a Silver Palace must be delightful!" I believe that all America thought so, and a great portion of Europe. So much for sensationalism. The name did the whole business. Once get a name to ring in the world's ears, and you need not trouble about the reality. I am not wiser than my neighbour, so thought that I, too, should like to sleep in a silver palace car. But I met with no silver whatever in these cars; the fittings, lamps, bolts, hinges, door-handles, &c., were of the white metal called pinchbeck, or Britannia metal, and the palaces were fitted up in the ordinary hotel style, the floor carpeted and oil-clothed, the seat velvetcovered. Each passenger occupied just so many feet as would suffice to stow away his person in sitting during the day, or recumbent at night, for the bed is constructed by turning down the back of the seat; the iron stancheons, which may be considered silver bed-posts, being so fixed that they form another berth near the top of the car, so that the two persons who have sat vis-à-vis during the day, elongate themselves over and under each other at night, according to taste or agility in climbing, and irrespective of sex. There are no special cars for ladies, and if your opposite neighbour is a gentleman in the day, in all probability you will have him on your shelf at night, and it will be well for you if he does not either snore or have nightmare. Although you have blankets, sheets, and pillows, you have to go to bed in your boots-at least, ladies have, and indeed they cannot undress at all, because they cannot shroud themselves behind the curtains without placing themselves in a recumbent position. Besides, what could be done with their clothing? It could only be put on the bed, and already stowed away there are hand-bags, three volume novels, umbrellas, goloshes, wraps, tins of biscuits, and possibly, a large flask of the never-tobe-omitted" Bourbon." I had a Turkish coffeepot with a very long handle. It much increased my difficulties at night, but relieved them greatly in the morning; but of this, and sundry other articles, I had to make bed-fellows. As this was my experience of Silver Palatial Sleeping, I preferred to be a peasant and roll myself up in my blanket, thus dispensing with the ceremony of going to bed with my coffeepot. Every one is obliged to retire to rest at a certain hour, and to rise ditto, for all the beds. must go up and come down together. Then follows waiting one's turn at the silver lavatory, which consists of two basins, a palatial roller towel, and a piece of soap, with a silver tap, whence you procure clean water, and wash the basin too, if a score of your neighbours have used it before you. Particular people select the cleanest portion of the towel, or carry their own.. In the same luxurious manner you are accommodated with comb, brush, nail-brush, and tooth-brush. I saw a lady take from her pocket a very handsome set of teeth, clean them carefully with the brush provided by the "Company," return the brush to its place, and place the teeth in her mouth. "I don't sleep |