that they rather thought we
excelled; in respect of the punctuality with which we arrived at our
stations, and the smoothness of our traveling. I wish you could see what
an American railroad is, in some parts where I now have seen them. I
won't say I wish you could feel what it is, because that would be an
unchristian and savage aspiration. It is never inclosed, or warded off.
You walk down the main street of a large town; and, slap-dash,
headlong, pell-mell, down the middle of the street, with pigs burrowing,
and boys flying kites and playing marbles, and men smoking, and women
talking, and children crawling, close to the very rails, there comes
tearing along a mad locomotive with its train of cars, scattering a
red-hot shower of sparks (from its _wood_ fire) in all directions;
screeching, hissing, yelling, and panting; and nobody one atom more
concerned than if it were a hundred miles away. You cross a
turnpike-road; and there is no gate, no policeman, no signal--nothing to
keep the wayfarer or quiet traveler out of the way, but a wooden arch on
which is written, in great letters, 'Look out for the locomotive.' And
if any man, woman, or child don't look out, why, it's his or her fault,
and there's an end of it.

"The cars are like very shabby omnibuses,--only larger; holding sixty or
seventy people. The seats, instead of being placed long ways, are put
cross-wise, back to front. Each holds two. There is a long row of these
on each side of the caravan, and a narrow passage up the centre. The
windows are usually all closed, and there is very often, in addition, a
hot, close, most intolerable charcoal stove in a red-hot glow. The heat
and closeness are quite insupportable. But this is the characteristic of
all American houses, of all the public institutions, chapels, theatres,
and prisons. From the constant use of the hard anthracite coal in these
beastly furnaces, a perfectly new class of diseases is springing up in
the country. Their effect upon an Englishman is briefly told. He is
always very sick and very faint; and has an intolerable headache,
morning, noon, and night.

"In the ladies' car, there is no smoking of tobacco allowed. All
gentlemen who have ladies with them sit in this car; and it is usually
very full. Before it, is the gentlemen's car; which is something
narrower. As I had a window close to me yesterday which commanded this
gentlemen's car, I looked at it pretty often, perforce. The flashes of
saliva